What is Love?
by brecky
Summary: Aphrodite doesn't think she knows what love really is, so she partakes in some self-discovery. Part of Windwhistles's Aphrodite Challenge. Includes Aphrodite/Ares/Hephaestus, Eros/Psyche, Orpheus/Eurydice, Echo/Narcissus, Hera/Zeus, and more.
1. Part I: Reflections

"She'd begun thinking about it quite often. What was love, anyway? Surely she should know after having endorsed it for all these millennia. But the more she thought about it, the more she was convinced that she didn't know what it was, and that was unacceptable. Humans begged her for it, and having found it, thanked her for it. Yet, _she_, the divine personification of the concept, had no idea of its meaning. She was going to have to remedy the situation, which was urgent enough to call for immediate attention. Aphrodite was going on a quest for love…"

* * *

She stood in the bathroom – which, as a goddess, she only used to change her appearance and to preen – and looked at herself in the mirror while she thought these things.

"Love," she said to herself and took a deep breath.

How to start… that was the question. She could ask her son, Eros, to aim one of his arrows at her… But considering he was still angry over everything she had put his wife, Psyche, through before their marriage, he'd probably make her fall in love with an elephant.

No, that would be very bad idea… She'd have to fall in love the hard way, whatever that meant.

Taking one last moment to make her hair look more lovable, she finally left the bathroom and went downstairs.

"Good morning, Aphrodite," said Hephaestus, reading a scroll in the library, a bowl of ambrosia sitting on an end table beside him.

"Morning," she replied.

Hephaestus put down his scroll. Her usual saunter was gone, and she seemed far away in thought. "Is everything OK?"

As if she could ask her husband what love was, or for that matter admit to him that she didn't know what "Yeah, everything's fine. I'm going to go… take a walk." She could, however, ask Ares.

Hephaestus knew what taking a walk meant, but he said nothing and tried to go back to his paper. This was the price of being married to Aphrodite, he thought, and who was he to tell the goddess of love how to treat her husband.

* * *

"Hello, Ares," cooed Aphrodite when Ares opened his door. She'd seen humans try to flirt before, fail in such amusing ways, yet still pique the interest of their subject – surely she could do this to Ares.

"Hello," he cooed back. Good morning to me, he thought, as he watched Aphrodite stroll towards him.

"I have a question for you," she continued, stroking his jawline.

"You can ask me anything," he replied through a boyish smile, pulling her closer.

Here we go, she thought. "Are you free for dinner?"

Ares was a little surprised by the question, expecting something a little bawdier, but let it slide. When his mind was set on conquest, he could not be deterred. "But dinner is so far away," he whispered into her ear.

Aphrodite took a step back. She must have made her hair too lovable this morning – she needed to tone things down a bit more. "You didn't answer my question."

"I'm definitely free," replied Ares, without thinking, closing the gap between them. "I'm always free for you."

"Good. I'll see you at sunset." And with that, she turned around and left.

Ares stood there for a moment, confused. Aphrodite never came over just to ask him a question – she must be up to something. Whatever it was, though, would at least be entertaining.

"Hey, Phobos," he yelled, "Am I free for dinner?"

* * *

That was quick, thought Hephaestus, when Aphrodite came home. "How was your walk?" he asked.

"Amusing," replied Aphrodite. Her thoughts were elsewhere - she had her dinner date set, now to figure out how to make him fall in love with her.

Hephaestus looked away. Why did she have to say that, he thought, but instead of speaking up, he simply said, "I'm glad," and ate some more ambrosia.

Aphrodite's mind was spinning, but she tried not to let it show. She desperately wished that she had someone she could talk to, just to get everything she had been thinking out of her head. The more she thought about what she might have to do to make Ares fall in love with her, the more it occurred to her that it had to be a bad idea to look for love from the personification of war. If she wanted to know how to fall in love the hard way, so to speak, she needed to talk to someone who had done it.

"I'm thinking about going down to earth for a while," she said to Hephaestus as she restyled her hair.

"What made you want to do that?" he asked, hoping it wasn't what he thought, and that the visit wouldn't end with another child.

"There are just some things I need to research," she replied.

"Would you like me to help? I could go with you." Hephaestus needed a break from the shallow perfection of Mt. Olympus. If one more deity made some little comment about his appearance, he would hit someone upside the head with his hammer.

"I don't really need any help. I'll be back soon." Just thinking about having to go down to earth to ask people about how to fall in love was so embarrassing that she couldn't even look Hephaestus in the face. As soon as she finished her hair, she was out the door.


	2. Eros

"Hello, Mother."

Oh no.

This was the last person she wanted to see –Eros – the other personification of love. It had been the sight her son, so completely in love with his new bride, that had made her doubt her own knowledge of love in the first place. Even when he was alone, Eros walked around Mount Olympus as if in a haze of love, as if it shielded him from every care in the world. It made her sick.

She may be on a quest for love, she thought, but she still had no desire to look it in the face. "Hello, Eros," she replied, walking past him as fast as she could.

"What are you up to this morning?" he asked, oblivious of her attempt to avoid him.

"I'm just going down to earth for a little while." She wasn't sure whether he was trying to tease her or just making conversation – his voice these days was so hard to read. "I'll be back soon."

Eros stifled a laugh. As if anyone who'd ever tried to get away from him had succeeded, he thought. He spread his wings and flew over her head so he could block her way to the path down the mountain. "But Mother, I barely get to see you anymore! You can't spare a few minutes for your own son?"

Aphrodite, forced now to look at him, did not like the sly grin on his face. It reminded her of another time someone had kept her from getting away… He had made a sly grin just like that one… but she refused to think of that now. "I have some important business on earth to attend to. Let me by." The idea of breaking one of his wings crossed her mind, but she let it go.

"Important business on earth? You don't have another lover, do you, mother? Have things been going badly with Ares?" As long as she was stuck, he thought, he might as well take advantage of it.

She watched him floating in front of her, so proud of himself - his arms folded, his expression a cross of amusement and contempt. It was at times like these that she was sure she had indulged him too much as a child. "How dare you question me in that manner! That is none of your business!"

She thought of storming off in the opposite direction, but he was too fast for her; she had barely turned around when he was already in front of her again, blocking the path toward her home.

"I'm sorry. You're right; your love life is your own business," said Eros, peering down at her from where he was floating. "It was rude of me to pry. My mistake."

She sighed, ignoring the blatant irony of his statement; she knew what he was really trying to say. "Eros, I have apologized multiple times to you and Psyche for everything I did. What more do you want?"

"That's just it. I don't think you understand exactly what it was that you did. You've only apologized for putting Psyche through all of those trials to become immortal – but that was the part I could almost understand." He paused and took a deep breath, for a moment lost in memory. "But to do everything in your power to keep her away from me, when you knew that I loved her with all my soul… what had I done to deserve such a punishment?"

The note of sorrow in his voice surprised her; she had hurt him more deeply than she had realized. But he had let himself fall in love with the woman she'd originally sent him to humiliate, not to mention the woman whose beauty had come close to humiliating her - what had Eros expected her to do? "I wasn't trying to punish you," she cooed, though she knew it was a lie.

"Yes, you were," corrected Eros, in a voice almost void of any emotion.

She didn't know what to say. "What do you want me to do?"

Eros, still floating before Aphrodite, looked down at his mother. For a moment, he wondered if she had ever, in all the centuries of her existence, felt the kind of love that he felt for Psyche. To his surprise, after finally confronting her after everything he and Psyche had been through, he wasn't angry anymore – instead, he simply felt sorry for her.

"Nothing," he finally said, shaking his head, and he floated out of her way. All he wanted to do now was to go home, hold his wife in his arms, and tell her that he loved her.

Aphrodite stood still on the path for a moment. She may not have fully understood the love he felt for Psyche, but she hated having caused him any pain. "I really am sorry," she told him.

"I forgive you," he replied, with all sincerity.

"Thank you," she said, and she started down the path again.

"Oh, while you're out," called Eros, "could you bring me back a box of cookies from the underworld? Psyche really likes them, and…"

"Goodbye, Eros," said Aphrodite, waving her hand as she walked away.

"Bye, Mom," said Eros. "Have fun."

Fun... That's what love is, thought Aphrodite, fun.


	3. Echo and Narcissus

Finally, thought Aphrodite. Of course, the walk to earth was the easy part – now she had to find someone to talk to…

Aphrodite looked around – she was in a forest on the edge of a small village. For a moment, she thought she could hear someone humming or whistling or something, but from where she was standing, she couldn't see anyone. Thinking she was just having a flashback from the last time she had come to earth, she began to saunter toward the village.

But wait, that was too high-pitched to be a man's voice… Maybe she wasn't imagining it… Maybe the voice belonged to a woman in love… who needed her help… who, if Aphrodite offered her assistance, she could threaten into never mentioning their conversation about love to anyone… Her day was starting to pick up. She followed the voice further into the forest.

This proved to be a frustrating task. The voice was so thin, almost hollow, that it was very difficult to tell what direction it was coming from. After walking around in circles for about an hour, she decided to take a break. In the distance, she could see a clearing and a small pond that she could take a relaxing bath in, so she headed in that direction.

To her surprise, however, there was already someone by the pond. A young man lay by the edge of the water, leaning toward the surface in such a way that Aphrodite assumed he was washing his face. She decided to approach him.

"Excuse me, young man," said Aphrodite. She really wanted a bath, and she was a goddess, so she had permanent dibs on such places.

The man didn't move.

"Young man, do you know who I am?"

Still nothing… and the more she looked at him, the more she saw that his face was strangely dry.

"Hello…" said Aphrodite, leaning over to see if he was, in fact, breathing.

"_Hello…_"

Aphrodite swore that she had just heard the thin voice again, but the only person she could see in the clearing was the man – the word "person", of course, being relative considering he could just as easily be a statue. She turned her attention back to the man.

"I am Aphrodite, goddess of love, and I have chosen to take a bath in this pond. You need to leave."

"_I am... in... ... love..._" That was definitely the thin voice, and even though she couldn't make out most of the words, it sounded so close – as if it were coming from right next to her, but when she turned her head to look, there was no one there..

She crouched down to look the frozen man in the face. "Is that coming from you?" As she spoke, part of her dress dipped a little into the water, causing the surface to ripple.

"Noooo!" screamed the formerly unresponsive man, plunging a hand into the water as if to grab something.

Aphrodite jumped in surprise. The man looked so frightened, but of what she couldn't tell. She didn't sense any danger – in fact, the clearing felt more relaxing to her than some places on Mt. Olympus.

"Are you alright?" she asked, though clearly this man was not alright.

"The face! The face!" he shouted, both of his hands reaching into the water now, his arms thrashing.

"Young man! Don't be afraid! You are perfectly fine! There is no one in the water!"

The man couldn't hear her over his own shouting. "The beautiful face!"

"_The beautiful face!_"

This is insane, thought Aphrodite. I'm not asking this man about love – he's obviously delirious. She turned around and started walking back toward the village.

"_The beautiful face..."_ she heard the voice say again._  
_

Aphrodite scanned her surroundings, even looking up into the trees, and still she saw no one. "And you," she shouted toward the treetops. "I am not playing this stupid game anymore! I command you to show yourself!"

"... I am... ... ..."

Aphrodite waited for the voice to finish its sentence, but never did. She had no time for this. If this woman/voice/whatever it was couldn't even tell her its own name, how could she expect it tell her its opinion on anything… if it even had its own opinions.

There had to be someone better in the village to ask about love.


	4. Orpheus

Entering the village, Aphrodite saw nothing extraordinary to grab her attention – only houses in need of minor repairs and small fields in the distance outfitted with the usual trappings of agrarian life. This was not her scene, so she made no attempt to pause and take note of her surroundings; instead, she focused her attention on where the villagers might be. The easiest way, she assumed, would be to knock on some doors.

This, however, proved ineffective, as no one seemed to be home. After what had happened in the forest, she was beginning to regret having come to earth at all.

Then, she heard a new sound… this time a faint strain of music that seemed to be carried by the wind from the fields beyond the village. It was one of the most beautiful things she had ever heard. Had it not been so entrancing, she most likely would have ignored it as a trick of the thin voice she had heard just a few moments ago, but the music was so sublime… surely this was something else entirely.

As she walked toward the fields, the music grew louder, and she began to see where all the people in the village had gone. Gathered in a newly harvested section of a wheat field were what looked to be about a hundred people, some snuggling with loved ones, some huddled on blankets with friends, some bouncing babies in their laps, some watching their children playfully running around... this seemed to be an organized event of sorts. In the middle of the crowd was an older gentleman, seated on a stone, playing a lyre and singing – and everyone old enough to pay attention to him appeared to have tears in their eyes.

Once she was close enough to make out the words that he was singing, she stopped in her tracks.

The rock the man was sitting on marked the spot where his wife had been bitten by a snake, and he was performing, she inferred, to commemorate the day of her death. This must be Orpheus, she thought. She'd heard of this man before, but never had she believed it possible that his music could indeed be so moving.

She sat in the field with the rest, listening to him play, and she remained there until nightfall, at which point the field became engulfed in darkness and the party, if one could call it that, began to disperse.

Orpheus remained seated on the rock, continuing to play his lyre well after the final villager had decided to return home. Only when she was alone with him did Aphrodite feel it appropriate to speak with him.

"I believe your name is Orpheus, yes?" she asked, humbly approaching him. Orpheus stopped playing.

"Yes, it is," he replied, his voice still heavy with grief.

"I am Aphrodite, goddess of love." She wasn't sure how to continue. "… Your music is beautiful."

Then why did you interrupt me, thought Orpheus. "Thank you."

Wanting to know what sort of woman could inspire such transcendent expression, she continued, "This woman you loved, she must have been beautiful as well."

"Yes, she was," he said. Thinking of her always made him feel lost. Every joy he ever had known had inevitably led him to her. Now that she was gone, though, his pursuits, whatever they were, served only to emphasize the void left by her absence - if he triumphed, he could not share his successes with her; if he failed, he could not find comfort in her arms. And, worst of all, his venture into the underworld had caused her to die a second death, this time by his own hand. As a result, with no foreseeable relief from his misery, he fought instead to keep Eurydice alive through his music until he could see her again.

Aphrodite wanted to ask what it was that made him fall in love with Eurydice, but the closer she came to asking him, the more she felt like she was trespassing, so she changed her course. "As beautiful as your music is, I can't help but ask whether there is anything I can do to relieve your pain."

"I can think of nothing but what I have already failed to do," replied Orpheus. The weight of everything he felt made him indelibly exhausted; at that moment, he only wished to go to sleep.

"Maybe I could find you another to love – someone more beautiful, perhaps."

Hearing this, Orpheus almost dropped his lyre. "There is no one more beautiful in all the world. In all the heavens." He rose from his seat and looked her squarely in the face. "Not even you." He knew that speaking to Aphrodite in such a manner would incur her wrath, but he didn't care. He couldn't think of anything she was able to do that would make him suffer more than he already had.

Aphrodite did not like his tone. She had half a mind to put him in his place, but his music still echoed within her, calming her ego, so she changed the subject. "You mean to say that you would rather stay here, mourning the loss of this woman, instead of experience the joy of new love again? I could even make you forget her, you would…"

"Forget her? How could you possibly offer – The idea – forget Eurydice –my Eurydice…" Orpheus was so enraged he had trouble forming his words. "Is this the reward you wish to give me for entertaining you this evening? To be made to forget the woman I love? I am glad I have amused you so thoroughly."

"But, Orpheus – your Eurydice is in the underworld; she has drunk from the River Lethe; she has forgotten you." His love may be noble, thought Aphrodite, but it had obviously driven him to madness. She wondered what could lead someone to live this way. Yet, there was something to his fervor that deeply moved her, and though she didn't know why, she found it as enchanting as his music.

Orpheus stood dumbfounded before Aphrodite. He had always known about the river of forgetfulness, but he could not believe that Eurydice's love for him was really gone. There were times he could almost feel her presence near him, as palpably as he could feel the presence of Aphrodite standing with him now. He couldn't explain it, and frankly, he felt no need to try. He knew the truth, and that was all that mattered to him.

"I need to go home," he stated. His monotone response chilled Aphrodite to her core, and she watched him walk toward the village in silence.

She needed to go home, too, she thought. She was late for her dinner with Ares.


	5. Ares

"You're late," Ares said as he opened the door. Not that he minded – the anticipation of what Aphrodite could have in store for him made her delayed arrival all the more pleasurable. That, and her tardiness made it possible for him to be home when she arrived, since he'd happened to have scheduled an appearance before a pious general at 7:00.

"Sorry," replied Aphrodite. "I bet the food is cold now. I've ruined our dinner."

Food… It occurred to Ares that she had meant an actual dinner, with actual food – none of which he had in his house. This may not have been what he was expecting, but he was a skilled warrior - he could improvise. "It's not a big deal. I can tell Deimos to get some more food while he's out."

"No, it's OK. I'm not particularly hungry, anyway." Aphrodite wandered into the drawing room while she spoke and sat herself down on a couch.

Again, not what he was expecting, thought Ares. Aphrodite seemed to be in some kind of stupor, but over what, he couldn't tell. This wasn't like her, or at least like his impression of her. She must be playing some kind of game. He followed her into the drawing room and began brainstorming his next move.

"Ares," Aphrodite took a deep breath as she decided what to say next. "I… How do you…" She shook her head – that wasn't the way to start.

Ares slid beside her on the couch and slipped his arm around her. "What's troubling you, Aphrodite?" He made sure to say her name; it always made the ladies more comfortable when he said their names.

"How would you define love?"

Whoa… not the direction he thought this was going. He had to stop himself from instinctively pulling his arm away and backing off the couch. Keep cool, keep cool, he kept repeating to himself in his head. "You're the expert, Aphrodite, perhaps you should tell me."

"That's just it. After seeing Eros and Psyche together, I'm not sure that I know anymore."

Keep cool, keep cool. She didn't say your name. Keep cool. "Why would you think that?"

"The way they'll do anything for each-other… I don't think I would have put up with all of that for a man I barely knew."

Was she saying that she couldn't relate to Psyche? To being in love? Ares felt like breathing a sigh of relief, but he kept his composure. "Love is different for everyone, Aphrodite, and from what I've seen, it's not always the healthiest thing for a person."

Aphrodite shot him a look. "What is that supposed to mean?" She may not know what love was, but she was not about to let someone insult it in her presence.

Danger. Danger. "I didn't mean to offend you, Aphrodite, but you know as well as I do that love causes mortals to do crazy things." He gave out a nervous laugh, which he immediately regretted. Hopefully she had found that charming, he thought.

"Immortals, too," added Aphrodite, looking him straight in the eye, as if to warn him that she could make him do those crazy things as well.

Retreat. Retreat. "Yes, of course, Aphrodite. I'm sorry if I've said anything to upset you. I greatly respect the passions of life – I live on them, after all. War cannot exist without love – love of country, love of ideas… I simply meant to say that passion can lead people into situations that they would not otherwise allow themselves to be in."

Aphrodite nodded. She thought of Psyche, of Orpheus… she had to acknowledge that this was true.

Success. Perhaps victory could still be achieved. He edged closer to her. Careful. Careful. "Take for instance, my passion for you. It is so strong that I cannot lie to you, even when that means risking your favor." A little tacky, he thought, but it could suffice. He smiled again – he knew she liked his smile.

Aphrodite wanted to laugh. Ares was clearly trying very hard, but she wasn't in the mood for what he had in mind. Not after everything she'd been through today. But she smiled just the same – she was still flattered by the attempt.

A smile. Further success. He edged even closer, murmuring into her ear in such a way that she could feel the breath of his words on her neck, and he made sure to speak slowly, so as not to seem too eager. "And your favor is so precious to me, my dear Aphrodite. Not a day goes by where I don't think about the feel of your voluptuous body against mine… or the feel of your soft lips when I kiss you." He leaned forward to demonstrate.

Aphrodite rose from the couch. She didn't want to hurt his feelings, so she affectionately put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry if I've misled you Ares, but that isn't why I came over. Besides, I've had so much on my mind today; I wouldn't be able to… please you in the way you deserve." That would stroke his ego. "Plus, I told Hephaestus I wouldn't be gone long, and that was this morning. I should get going." As if Hephaestus would do anything about her spending the night with Ares, she thought. Again.

Ares never liked it when she mentioned Hephaestus – it always killed the mood for him. He'd get images in his head of invisible nets above him, or all of Mt. Olympus standing outside laughing, or even just Hephaestus peering up at him, poking him with his staff like a grumpy old man. "I understand," he lied. As if anyone could go home every night to him, he thought, but he walked her to the door just the same.

"Sleep well, Aphrodite," he said, and kissed her good night, secretly hoping Hephaestus was looking out his window.

"You, too," replied Aphrodite, secretly hoping Hephaestus was in bed already.


	6. Hephaestus

Of course he's not in bed, thought Aphrodite. A day like today wouldn't be complete without an awkward conversation with her husband.

Hephaestus watched Aphrodite as she sauntered into the room, well past dinner-time, with a pensive look on her face. As much as he didn't want to know, he asked her how her day on earth had been.

Aphrodite touched her forefinger to her lips as she searched for the right word, finally deciding on "Confusing". That it had been, though her time with Ares had helped a little. Love made people irrational, she'd concluded- so trying to make sense of it would surely be a fruitless task. Believing herself to be as satisfied with her quest as she could ever be, she draped herself on a couch and began reading some lusty, romantic poetry.

Her habit of answering him so vaguely, Hephaestus thought, was particularly cruel. For every bit of information she'd leave out, he could picture a thousand people, places, positions... and each daydream would sting him as harshly as if they'd all actually happened. Every face he saw could be the face of her last lover; every place he went could be where they'd spent the day together… Her expertise may be love, but his was creativity and imagination; for her to drop such a tempting prompt for his thoughts - this, he felt, must be some calculated form of revenge.

Aphrodite never knew why he asked her questions, anyway. She'd always try to give him an answer that she thought would make him want to continue the conversation, but instead, he'd always escape back to whatever he was reading or happened to be doing when she walked in. She was thankful that she at least had Ares, even if he only listened long enough to get her out of her clothes.

While Aphrodite was losing herself in her poems, Hephaestus lost track of what he was reading altogether. Had Aphrodite been paying attention to him, she would have noticed that he hadn't moved his scroll since she sat down. All Hephaestus could think about was the word "confusing", and the surprisingly serious look on his wife's face when she came home. If she had been with a new lover, she would have come back with her signature saunter again, and all would have returned to normal. What could possibly have "confused" her?

Now this is love, thought Aphrodite as she read her poems. What could be more loving than people taking so much pleasure in another's company? She thought of the pleasure she took in Ares's company, and the obvious pleasure he must take in hers. As the poem she was reading grew a little steamier, she was reminded of the last time she had "taken a walk" with him.

It bothered Hephaestus that something on earth had "confused" his wife – whatever she'd meant by "confusing". Was she confused by something someone had said? Something someone had done? Perhaps someone had reacted to her advances in a way she hadn't expected… That seemed plausible… though whatever could confuse Aphrodite during a seduction, that would be difficult to deduce…

The more Aphrodite thought about her last "walk" with Ares, the more she realized that she hadn't taken quite as much pleasure in his company as she'd originally remembered. It had been the difference between walking through a beautiful garden in a forest, with butterflies floating around overhead, fireflies winking back and forth at one-another, a family of deer grazing in the shade nearby… and walking in place in the corner of the room. She wondered why she'd even been walking at all, considering what the walk entailed… She was a goddess - it's not like she had needed the exercise…

That's it, thought Hephaestus. The idiot she'd tried to seduce wasn't interested. That's what had confused her. How could it be anything else? If her tryst had been successful, she would have understood everything that was going on. She was the goddess of that sort of thing, after all. The nerve of the measly human, refusing a goddess... Refusing his beloved wife… Refusing what he himself hadn't been offered in years…

So her own behavior had been irrational, realized Aphrodite. Could it be possible that she was in love with Ares and not know it? The idea had never occurred to her before, and while she was on the subject, she could remember many irrational things she had done to keep his company – like go back to him when she knew Hephaestus could have easily booby-trapped the rest of his home as well. Her son, though, had known that he was in love as soon as he had pricked himself with his own arrow - and well before he and Psyche had even met face-to-face. Orpheus knew that he was still in love with Eurydice, and was somehow convinced that Eurydice was still in love with him, even though she was dead and in the Underworld. Could it be possible for someone not to know that they were in love? How intriguing…

Years… Hephaestus couldn't even remember the last time she'd even flirted with him. What was it about him that was so distasteful to her? With anyone else, he would have immediately assumed it was his leg, but there was a time she had been attracted to him… Or at least claimed to be… If he remembered it right… And in any case, she was not so repulsed at the moment as to go read her poems in another room… Why she chose to sit on the couch across from him, when they barely even spoke anymore, perplexed him… Was she taunting him? Had she deliberately placed herself where he could easily get up and touch her? Or had she put herself just out of arm's reach to show him how he would never be able to touch her again… or hold her in his arms…

No… She did care for Ares, that much Aphrodite felt was certain, but was she willing to go to the Underworld for him? She didn't even like going there as a goddess, would she have been willing to go as a mortal? No… She must not be in love with him after all. Perhaps a person does know when they're in love - or at least is able to recognize it on some level once the possibility occurs to them. She found this conclusion a bit disappointing; if she'd been in love with Ares, she could have simply contemplated her own condition and known everything there was to know. But now, it seemed love might require a different sort of irrationality than she'd originally conjectured, and that her quest was going to be much more difficult than she had imagined. Thinking about this, she sighed.

Did he just hear her sigh? She must be so upset, thought Hephaestus, and he felt a sudden urge to get up and put his hand on her shoulder. He tried to suppress the feeling at first, but then he began to wonder… why had he stopped himself? He was her husband, after all – he could touch the shoulder of his own wife, right? And if that were the case, why he should stop there… He could take her in his arms… Oh, how he wished to do that… And he could kiss her in a way that would make her never want another man ever again… He wasn't sure how to do this, but he yearned to do it just the same… Just thinking about all these things made his heart beat faster and he swore he could feel his face starting to blush.

Aphrodite tried to understand how she could do all the things with Ares that people in love did, but not be in love… These poems were supposed to help her relax at the end of a trying day, but instead, they were just confusing her again. The poem she was currently reading, for example, spoke of how the writer could feel such a deep connection with their lover that both of them literally felt like one being, comparing the sensation to the soul-mates of Plato finding each-other again after being ripped apart by Zeus. The act itself, however, as it was described, sounded utterly ordinary. She had done everything the lovers in the poem were doing, and much more, with Ares, but even on the best occasions, it never felt anything like this. These poems are so misleading, she thought. How could something that sounds so boring in practice be so emotionally stimulating?

This was it. Hephaestus wanted to hold his wife so badly that he was literally in pain with anticipation. He pulled himself out of his chair and slowly made his way toward her. The closer he got, though, the more nervous he became, and his body began to quiver. His blood felt as hot as the fires of his furnace, and it took all of his strength not to let the shaking of his hands affect his balance on his cane. Then, once he stood in front of her, it occurred to him that taking her into his arms might frighten her, since in Hephaestus's eyes, she still clearly wanted nothing to do with him. So instead, with all the courage he could muster, he decided to attempt to kiss her good night. He had no idea how she would react, considering the state of their relationship, but he couldn't live like this anymore. He had been the laughing stock of Mount Olympus his entire life, even to his own mother, Hera. For one moment, no matter how brief, he was going to have the life he wanted.

Hephaestus leaned down and softly kissed Aphrodite on her forehead. He had barely touched her, but as he did, he felt as if he were an anvil being struck by a hammer, with sparks of light from the blow coursing throughout his body. Any more contact with her, and he may have fainted.

Aphrodite had been focusing so much on the poem before her that his kiss seemed to have come from nowhere. What startled her most about it, however, was not that he had made his way across the room specifically to kiss her, but that the kiss was so sweet. The man who she had thought still hated her… still wanted nothing to do with her… still wanted her to be someone more like his mother… had just tenderly kissed her forehead. She didn't know what to say; she just looked up at him.

Hephaestus wished he had planned this out a little more – standing in front of her as she gazed into his eyes, with her saying nothing to let him know whether or not his kiss was welcome, was one of the most intimidating moments he had ever experienced. Feeling that there was nothing more he could do if she still refused to speak to him, he left her dumbfounded on the couch and headed for his room.


	7. Aphrodite

By the time Aphrodite was able to come to her senses, Hephaestus had locked himself in his room for the night. She wanted to pound on his door and make him say something… anything… How could he do that and simply leave? Standing in front of his door, she called out his name before she'd realized that she had even spoken.

There was no answer. He couldn't be asleep already, she thought. She remembered when they were first married, back when they slept in the same bed, it would take forever for him to fall asleep, and when he finally did, he would sleep so lightly that the smallest sound would wake him up. She called his name again, deliberately this time, but still she heard nothing.

She leaned against the door and slumped down to the floor. She thought she had hardened herself by now against his behavior – his stifled conversations, his disregard for her opinions. Clearly she was wrong.

Aphrodite was a goddess who hungered for love as if she would die without it, and here she was married to a man who seemed determined to make her starve, and who threw out paltry scraps of attention to ensure that her death was slow and painful.

She hated that he, a man she would never have chosen to marry in the first place, could affect her so deeply. In a desperate attempt to feel better, she tried to drown out any thoughts of her disappointing marriage by filling her mind with thoughts of Ares, all the while wondering whether it was too late in the evening to go to him.

Had Ares treated her so coldly on a regular basis, she would have left him a long time ago. She had too much respect for herself to let a lover treat her this way - not that one would, considering her reputation for vengeance. Perhaps she should leave Hephaestus.

No, Zeus would never let her. He had married them, he would break them up. And she would have no say in the matter.

Unless she could make him could up with the idea himself…

This would take some time to plan, she thought. But having a plan gave her the strength to rise from the floor and go to her own room. She would talk with Eros about it in the morning – on this matter, at least, she felt he would be discreet.


	8. Eros II

"Good Morning, Mother. Why did you have Hermes send for me? You know where I live." Eros didn't like having been interrupted while having breakfast with his wife.

"I'm thinking about leaving Hephaestus."

This didn't exactly surprise Eros, considering how Hephaestus had publicly humiliated her not too long ago. Talking about this in Hephaestus's home, however, was another matter. He wasn't in the mood for getting in a trap himself. "Where is Hephaestus, by the way?"

"I don't know. He was out of the house by the time I woke up this morning." It had been strange to see his chair empty, his paper still rolled up on the table, and no ambrosia bowls anywhere in sight. She didn't want to mention the note Hephaestus had left saying that he was with his mother, Hera, though for all she knew, he was having this same conversation with her.

"So he's not here?" Eros peered around the room.

"No. Now, I'm thinking about getting Zeus to… separate us, but I need your opinion on how exactly to convince him that – "

"Wait, you want me to advise you on how to divorce him? I'm sorry, but I can't." He hated it when she roped him into her little designs.

"What do you mean you can't? You're my son! This is what family is for! And besides, it's not like I'd be divorcing your father. Why should this make you upset?" She was not going to take his attitude this morning.

"I'm also the god of love, and I, unlike you, take that task very seriously."

How dare he imply that she doesn't take love seriously – it was precisely her respect for love, whatever it is, that made her want to leave him in first place. "But Hephaestus and I aren't in love! How could you possibly object to our divorce?"

"You may not be in love with him, but I know for a fact that he is in love with you."

"You don't know anything." Aphrodite turned her face away from him, hoping her expression wasn't showing how upset she still was from the night before. She'd been struggling to keep her composure enough as it was, she didn't need to visibly break down entirely.

"I see him on a regular basis, mother. We talk every time I pick up the arrows he's made for me. And from what he's said, I probably talk with him more than you do."

"I don't know what mean, but I live with him. I'm the one married to him, not you. How dare you think you're an expert on my marriage simply because you have conversations with him every once in a while."

"Well, excuse me for sharing my opinion. I just thought that's why you'd sent for me to see you this morning."

Ever since he'd met Psyche, Aphrodite felt that Eros had been more flippant with her. She didn't like the influence this woman had on him – especially when it stood in the way of getting what she wanted. However, she also knew her son, and on top of everything, she was curious as to what Hephaestus had been saying to him, so she gestured for Eros to join her in the drawing room, and she seated herself on the couch. She decided to take a less blunt course of action.

"What sort of conversations are you having with my husband?"

Eros smiled. "Many kinds - for instance the other day, we spoke about the weather on earth, and how dismal it has been recently. He wondered if Hera had anything to do with it, seeing as she's also the goddess of the sky, but I told him about how upset Zephyros has been since the death of – "

"That is not what I meant and you know it." Perhaps being blunt was the best approach after all, she thought.

Eros sat down in Hephaestus's chair. Aphrodite wondered whether he had done so deliberately.

"He asks me for advice," continued Eros.

"What…"

"He thinks that since love is one of my specialties, and since I know you all too well, I'm a good person to ask for advice on how to deal with you." He smiled again – he knew she'd like that last bit.

Aphrodite did not appreciate Eros's tone, nor did she like what he was saying. "How to deal with me? You're making this up!"

"I am not. I wish I were – there are certain things a person doesn't need to hear about his mother." Eros chuckled. This was so much fun.

"He's asking you for… for…" She couldn't get the words out, she was so mortified.

"No, not like that – besides, how could I give him advice on something that clearly isn't happening? " Aphrodite's face turned red – from anger or embarrassment, Eros couldn't tell. "No, he asks me about smaller things."

"Such as?" she growled.

Eros leaned toward her, his elbows on his knees. "Such as how to get you to speak to him - He says that when he tries to have a conversation with you, you give him these vague answers like you'd rather he hadn't said anything at all. I tell him that this doesn't sound like you – if anything, you are all too direct with me. Telling me what to do, where to go… Frankly I wouldn't mind a vague, disinterested answer from you myself from time to time."

Aphrodite turned pale. How could Hephaestus do this? His telling her son about their relationship was almost more humiliating than his dragging her and Ares into the middle of Mount Olympus for all to see. And if he could speak to her son about these things, why couldn't he speak to her? She and Hephaestus had been sitting together in relative silence for hours last night, and… Well… She didn't want to think about that right now.

"And there's your business with Ares, but you know all about that."

"What does he say about Ares?" she asked- her voice hollow.

Eros felt they were now reaching a territory where it wasn't his place to say anything and that the subject had suddenly stopped being funny. "Just that he knows when you go over there, even though you don't tell him. It really bothers him."

"Does it now… I wonder if it would bother him so much if he were the only one who knew." She had a hard time picturing a Hephaestus that cared as much for her as Eros claimed, and there was a large part of her that didn't want to try. Doing so, she felt, would only make the reality of her situation all the more painful.

"It's not just because people know," added Eros. He didn't want to elaborate.

Aphrodite knew what Eros was trying to say, but it couldn't be possible. She didn't know what to think. "I can't believe you. You don't know what it's like living here. If your Psyche made you feel so lonely that you couldn't stand it anymore, and then humiliated you when… Why am I defending myself to you? I am your mother. I am telling you that I don't want to be married to this man anymore. It is your job as my son to support me."

"My job? What are you – "

"Yes, your job. I would support you."

"Of course you would; you hate Psyche." Eros laughed.

"I would support you even if I'd shot that golden arrow into you myself."

Eros could tell that his mother was serious. She would go about leaving Hephaestus whether he chose to help her or not, and she would never forgive him if he refused. Besides, she did have a point. He did love her, even if he thought she was making a bad decision. He took a deep breath. "If you want to leave him, you'll need to convince Zeus that Hephaestus wants to leave you as well. If Zeus gets any idea that this could make Hephaestus upset again, he'll say no. And considering how much Hera hates you, I have to say, I don't really think any of this is a good idea. If she finds a way to convince Zeus that she and Hephaestus have reconciled, you better believe she'll fight to keep you in your marriage just out of spite."

Eros had a point, thought Aphrodite. Everyone on Mount Olympus was afraid of the creations Hephaestus could make in his forge, and they all knew that, if he so chose, he could easily entrap or overpower anyone he wished. Zeus would never risk angering Hephaestus. In all likelihood, he might even refuse to listen to her, choosing instead to divorce them only on Hephaestus's request. She would have to go about this carefully. "I figured I would need to make Zeus think that it was his own idea."

"Then I suggest going through Hera. Don't ask me how, but Zeus owes her so much, I could see him wanting to do her a favor." Eros thought for a moment about how his mother could always twist him into doing something he thought was ethically wrong, and he hoped that this was the last time it would happen. He respected Hephaestus, and almost, in an odd way, considered him a friend. All of this felt so sordid. "But mother, please consider talking to Hephaestus first. I don't think he knows what he's doing to you."

Aphrodite was too busy trying to think of how she could ever get Hera to agree with her on anything, let alone divorcing her son, to listen to Eros's last remark. "Thank you, Eros. I'm sure you'd like to be getting back to your wife now. I know our visit must have disturbed your morning together."

"As if that would upset you," Eros muttered under his breath. "Have a nice day, mother."

As Eros left, he wanted nothing more than to take a bath. What an awful start to a day, he thought.

Aphrodite, on the other hand, thought her day was looking up, and she began to get ready for a visit to her mother-in- law's.


	9. The Birth of Hephaestus

**_The Birth of Hephaestus_**

_One night, while Hera and Zeus were fast asleep, Zeus was struck by a terrible headache. His cries awoke his wife, and, hearing her husband scream for someone to rip his forehead open, she became frightened, and ran to seek some help._

_The streets were empty, and no one answered their doors except Hermes. She begged him to do something to ease her husband's pain, despite his informing her repeatedly that he knew nothing about divine headaches. In desperation, she threw herself to the ground, told him that his ingenuity was her husband's only hope, and began to cry. This spectacle made Hermes's heart grow heavy, and he sped to Zeus's side at once._

_Finding Zeus beating his head against the corners of various pieces of furniture, Hermes approached him with caution._

_"Get this out of me!" Zeus howled, and he handed Hermes a two-sided axe._

_Hermes looked down at the axe, hesitating. This did not seem like a good idea._

_"I command you as your ruler! Get this out of me!"_

_Hermes did as he was told, afraid to do anything else, and hit Zeus in the forehead with the axe._

_Hera entered the room just in time to see Hermes splitting her husband's head open – she screamed and ran to grab the axe from him._

_At that moment, to the surprise of everyone, a fully-grown woman, dressed in a complete set of armor, emerged from the gaping hole in Zeus's forehead. Once the woman stepped out of the wound, Zeus's brow healed over as if nothing had happened._

_Hera fainted from shock._

_When she came to, Hermes was gone, and Zeus was sitting on the bed with the strange woman and speaking with her about battle strategies._

_"What just happened?" she shrieked._

_"This is Athena," answered Zeus, waving his hand toward the woman. "We've been talking, and she believes my thoughts gave birth to her."_

_"Excuse me? You're having illegitimate children with your thoughts now?" She shook with anger._

_"I don't think that's what happened – "_

_"I don't care what happened! You said there would be no more! Tell her to get out of my bedroom!"_

_"You don't have to go," said Zeus to Athena. He was not ready to end their conversation – her ideas on government and law had been so fascinating. Athena, however, despite her inexperience, knew when it was wise to leave, and set out to find a palace of her own._

_"You're not sleeping here tonight." Hera informed her husband. "I don't want to be in the way if your elbow starts giving birth, too." She threw his pillows out the door._

_"But Hera! I didn't –"_

_"OUT!" she cried, shooing him away._

_Closing the door behind him, she looked down at the axe resting on the floor in a pool of her husband's blood. She didn't know how he'd done it – a man conceiving a child through his mind. She didn't believe him; he had to have had some strange liaison again, though she couldn't think of an animal he might have turned into that had children this way. In any event, he had promised to be faithful to her, and faithful husbands never gave birth to people through their foreheads._

_This was the last straw. If he was trying to show her how powerful he was by having thought-babies, then she would have to find a way have children on her own, as well._

_That evening, as she crafted fanciful plots on how to make her adulterous husband stop fooling around, she conceived a child all by herself._

_Hera eagerly awaited the arrival of her child, and when her labor started, no mother had ever been as happy during a birth as she was that day. All through the birth pains, she imagined just how she would show the baby to her husband, and exactly in what manner she would explain to him how the child came into being. When the baby began to come, she imagined it would grow into a noble god or goddess, that it would have enormous responsibilities that it would fulfill without fault, and that it would become one of the most powerful gods or goddesses on Mount Olympus._

_When the baby had left her and she heard it cry for the first time, a large smile beamed across her face. The nymphs attending her informed her that the child was a boy, and Hera reached out to hold him._

_Her smile disappeared as soon as she saw him._

_His feet were misshapen. The nymphs tried to inform her that her baby would be fine, but she couldn't hear them over the horror she felt looking down at her baby's feet._

_Hera screamed, all the while holding the baby out in front of her as if it were diseased. How could she show Zeus how powerful she was by handing him such an imperfect baby – the only deformed immortal she had ever seen? Everyone would make fun of her, she'd lose the respect of her worshipers, and her husband would never listen to her again._

_Seized by a frenzy of self-preservation and shock, she ran all the way out to the edge of Mount Olympus, and before the nymphs could stop her, threw the baby off a cliff._


	10. Part II: Relations

"Good morning, Aphrodite. What brings you to my parlor?" Hera, to her recollection, had never expressed to Aphrodite that she was welcome to visit her home, and Aphrodite had never exactly invited Hera over for tea, so Hera found Aphrodite's sudden social call a bit of a surprise. She was not one to be rude, however, or at least not openly, and she could fake sincerity better than anyone on Mount Olympus, so she swiftly stepped into the role of 'polite hostess' and invited her to sit down.

Aphrodite had a performance in mind of her own, so she smiled and began her rendition of 'someone who can stand to be around Hera'.

She'd also come with the intention of having a larger audience than just her mother-in-law, but when she happened to see a newspaper lying on a table near the corner of the room as if half-read, she presumed that her husband was close by, and set her plan in motion.

When he heard Hera's nymphs announce that Aphrodite had arrived, Hephaestus was about to return to the parlor with another bowl of ambrosia. Not ready to face his wife just yet, and curious as to what business she could have with his mother, he instead put his ear to the door and tried to overhear their conversation.

"Thank you, Hera, for allowing me to see you this morning. Is my husband still here?"

"Why no, I believe he is at his forge," Hera lied, hoping that Aphrodite had come to speak with her about something that would offend Hephaestus, thereby causing him to publicly embarrass Aphrodite again. His last humiliation of her had been such fun.

Hera must think me a fool, thought Aphrodite. "That is too bad. I've been so drawn to the familial kind love lately that I'd hoped that we could all have breakfast together, but I should have known that Hephaestus would have left by now. "

Hephaestus smiled when he heard this; it made him happy to hear that Aphrodite wanted to spend quality time with him, especially after last night. Hera, however found her response deeply suspicious. "That would have been lovely," stated Hera. "We must all spend the morning together very soon. You are welcome to stay and have your breakfast with me, though."

"Why thank you, Hera. That is very kind of you." For a moment, she felt a bit like Ares, repeating Hera's name like this.

The two sat in silence for a few moments. Aphrodite didn't want to start in on her plan right when she sat down – that would be too obvious. Hera, on the other hand, had nothing to say to Aphrodite – or at least nothing nice – so she waited for Aphrodite to speak first.

"Did Hephaestus tell you I went to earth recently?" she asked, after what she deemed a sufficient length of silence.

"No, he didn't mention it." Hephaestus would never have told her such a thing, thought Hera - he never mentioned Aphrodite in her presence.

"Well, I did, and you'd never guess who I ran across."

"Who?" This better not be about one of her lovers, thought Hera. It was too early in the morning.

"Orpheus. He was giving a concert for the anniversary of Eurydice's death."

Hephaestus breathed a sigh of relief. So she hadn't been sleeping with another man – she'd just gone to hear some music. He wished she'd let him come with her, though, instead of telling him that she was doing some research and going alone. Or had she been alone…

"I am sorry I missed it. Isn't his music sublime?" Hera wondered where this conversation was going.

"Oh yes, it certainly is. In fact, I found his music so moving that I wanted to find some way to comfort him." Hearing this, Hephaestus cringed, almost dropping his bowl of ambrosia. "I told him I could find him another woman to love and grow old with, someone even lovelier than his former wife, but he refused. Isn't that strange?"

"Perhaps he is already in love with someone else." Or maybe he just doesn't trust your judgment, thought Hera.

"No, that's just it. He is still in love with Eurydice. From the way he sounded, it's almost as if he viewed falling in love another woman as some form of infidelity." As she spoke, Aphrodite watched Hera's expression, waiting for her mask of geniality to begin to crack. "I told him that Eurydice has drunk from the River Lethe, that she doesn't even know he exists anymore, and that I could erase all of his memories of her in return, but still he refused. In fact, he became so angry that he dared to say that Eurydice was even more beautiful than I am. Can you believe it?"

Hera wished Aphrodite would stop talking. The idea of a man so faithful to his wife that he remained true to her even after her death was too painful for her to bear. Then on top of it all, she was hearing this from Aphrodite, someone who, to her, would never understand the beauty of that kind of love. Eurydice had been one of the luckiest women in the world to have a husband like that, thought Hera. Such a marriage is a treasure - and so unlike her own. Just the other day, she'd heard that Zeus had turned into a shower of golden rain in order to sleep with some woman he didn't even know, and here was Orpheus, who according to Aphrodite, had refused to ever be with another woman again, possibly even refusing Aphrodite herself.

"Such faithfulness deserves a reward," said Hera, lost in thought. How she wished her husband loved her that way.

Here we go, thought Aphrodite – time for step two. "Just what are you implying?"

"I wasn't implying anything," she replied, though it occurred to her that it would have been a clever remark if she had been.

"What sort of reward would you give him then, for his faithfulness?" Aphrodite tried to spit out her last word as if it were spoiled food.

"I'm not sure. I would have to think about it," answered Hera, struggling to keep her polite tone of voice.

"As if such behavior were something to praise – what good does it do him? If you ask me, it sounds more like its own punishment." Aphrodite could see Hera slowly clenching her fingers over the arms of her chair. She was on the right path – time to push Hera over the edge. "It makes me question whether there is any value in fidelity at all."

Aphrodite was, of course, lying - she did hold value in fidelity, just not in the same way Hera did. Aphrodite cherished love in all forms and saw every manifestation of it as sacred, believing one must be, above all, faithful to love. This belief was the reason she had come to visit Hera in the first place, and it was the reason that she wanted to leave her husband. Remembering her quest from yesterday, Aphrodite vowed herself to continue it as soon as her marriage was over.

It wounded Hephaestus to hear his wife speak of fidelity with such venom, even if the fidelity in question was to a ghost. He couldn't believe that Aphrodite truly felt this way – not completely, at least. She was the goddess of love, after all - that placed marital love under her domain as well. This didn't sound like the Aphrodite he knew.

Hera tried to compose herself – hearing anyone speak of faithfulness to a spouse in such a disrespectful tone always made her furious. "I wouldn't expect you to understand, Aphrodite, what with the way you behave," she said through her teeth. "And yes, now I'm implying something."

"And what exactly is it about the way I behave that offends you so much?" She wanted to rub it in and bring everything to the surface- if the conversation ended with Hera throwing her out of the palace, all the better.

Hera hoped that Hephaestus was listening to this. As much as she despised him, she despised Aphrodite more, and thinking of any child of hers being married to such a woman made her physically ill. If Aphrodite wanted to be chastised for her behavior, then Hera would gladly oblige. Aphrodite was a guest in her home, after all.

Hera took a deep breath, as if rolling up her sleeves, before she began. "You're selfish. All you care about is your own lust. You never even think about the effect your little dalliances have on the people around you. It's as if we are all toys in your own hedonistic game, and I, for one, find your blatant egotism absolutely nauseating. I'm surprised Hephaestus hasn't left you, as is everyone else on Mount Olympus." Hera was surprised to find that berating Aphrodite like this was almost cathartic – as if she were releasing her frustrations over her own husband, as well.

Aphrodite knew before she came over that Hera would get upset and possibly accuse her of behaving like Zeus, but that didn't make what Hera had said hurt any less. Aphrodite was well aware, though, that if she didn't immediately say something in return, Hera would see the damage she had done and her whole plan would be ruined. Therefore, to keep the conversation going and hide what she was feeling, she began saying whatever popped into her head.

"You're calling me selfish? You're so self-centered that you threw your own baby off a cliff just so you wouldn't look bad! If I were Hephaestus, and you had crippled me through your own pride, I would have found a way to strip you of your divinity and banish you from here a long time ago. You're just saying these things because you're so upset that Zeus cheats on you with anyone he can get his hands on that you're taking it out on me. If you're looking for someone to reprimand for infidelity, talk to him; I, at least, love my husband."

Hera will surely kick her out now, thought Aphrodite. She had meant to say 'respect', though, not 'love'… why had she said 'love'?

Hephaestus was in shock. It had felt so good listening to her bashing his mother, but to hear her say that she loved him… It was as if the whole world was melting away, leaving nothing but Aphrodite. He opened the door.

"Aphrodite…" he breathed.

Aphrodite stared at Hephaestus in shock, trying to figure out a way to fix what she had done… She wondered what Ares would do in this situation – he would probably find an excuse to leave and retreat. Keeping in character, though, she instead looked back at Hera. "I... I thought you said he was at his forge…"

Hera said nothing. Her eyes bore into Aphrodite, and her face was maroon with rage. How dare she speak to me, the queen of the gods, that way, she thought. Zeus will hear of this.

Hephaestus moved toward his wife as if in a daze and took her hand in his free one. "Let's go home," he whispered, guiding her away from Hera, who looked as if she wanted to hit her.

Well, that didn't go well, thought Aphrodite as she walked home holding Hephaestus's hand. Perhaps she should have run away after all.

* * *

**_I've seen some people reply to reviews at the bottom of their chapters, so I wanted to write a note, too._ _Thank you to everyone who has reviewed! You are all so kind :)_**

**_qwertzuiop4 - I think of Offenbach, too - the can-can kept running through my head while I was writing that chapter :)_**

**_Fostersb - Aphrodite/Hephaestus flashbacks are on the way! :)_**

_**If anyone else is doing windwhistles's Aphrodite Challenge, let me know - I would love to read your stories!**_


	11. Ares and Hephaestus

Ares was on his way to earth for a battle when he saw her.

Aphrodite… walking down the street… holding hands with Hephaestus.

She'd always told him how much she despised him, and here she was for all to see, holding his hand.

Ares abhorred Hephaestus as deeply as if he were an invading army, and in a way, he was one. Ares had started seeing Aphrodite long before Hephaestus had even returned to Mount Olympus, and for some reason, Hephaestus had felt it acceptable to drag Ares around, naked with Aphrodite, in a net for everyone to see, as if Ares had done something wrong, even though Aphrodite had never loved Hephaestus in the first place.

Or so she'd claimed…

They seemed to be headed from Zeus and Hera's palace. Why had they been there? Aphrodite hated Hera, possibly more than he hated Hephaestus. Had she been having breakfast with them? Why would she do that to herself?

Ares decided to take a detour and follow them down the road.

At one point, Hephaestus turned his head to the side to look at Aphrodite. Ares could see that he was beaming – he'd never seen him so happy. Then Aphrodite seemed to be whispering something to him, and he laughed. What was she saying to him? She'd been so morose last night, and now she seemed practically giddy.

What was going on?

Hephaestus now appeared to be whispering something back. And now it was Aphrodite who was laughing….

That was it. Time to say hello.

Ares jogged a little to catch up with them. They hadn't been walking very fast, so it didn't take long.

"Why, good morning, neighbors! Fancy meeting you all here!"

Hephaestus flashed a big smile. "Good morning, Ares! My wife and I were just going for a walk."

Aphrodite forced a grin at Ares that looked more like a grimace. She felt so awful that she wanted Ares to pick her up and carry her away.

"It is a beautiful morning for a walk, I must say," replied Ares, looking at Aphrodite the entire time.

"It is a glorious morning, indeed," said Hephaestus. Aphrodite had both insulted his mother and said that she loved him, and now he was walking hand-in-hand with his wife in front of her former lover, flouting their rekindled relationship. His day couldn't get any better.

Aphrodite didn't say a word. She tried to smile again, but even Ares could tell that she was too uncomfortable to mean it. Ares shot a confused look at her in return.

"Where are you off to this morning?" continued Hephaestus, who was taking great pleasure watching Ares squirm.

"I'm off to oversee a battle," he told Hephaestus, all the while scrutinizing Aphrodite and trying to decipher what was going on.

Subtly is definitely not his strong suit, thought Aphrodite. "I hope you have a speedy victory," she blurted, as it would mean she would get to see him soon and explain everything to him.

"Thank you, Aphrodite."

Hephaestus took this moment to place his free hand on the small of Aphrodite's back. "We should let you get going – we wouldn't want you to be late and lose your battle." Seeing as you've already lost one this morning, he thought.

"And I should let you… continue your walk. Have a good day." Ares bowed his head goodbye and marched toward earth again with a puzzled look on his face.

Going for a walk… thought Aphrodite. It occurred to her that Hephaestus may have had a double meaning when he'd said that. No… No… No… What had she done?

Once Ares was out of earshot, Hephaestus began whispering to her again.

"You have no idea how happy I am this morning. I could break out into song."

"Please don't," interjected Aphrodite.

Hephaestus thought she was joking and laughed. "I won't – I'm no singer. But I could make you something, though. Some jewelry, perhaps."

Aphrodite felt her stomach tighten. That's what she needed, more love tokens – that would solve their problems.

Hephaestus stopped and turned Aphrodite to face him. "No, better yet, why don't we just start over?"

"Start over? What do you mean?"

"I mean, we start afresh. There's so much we've been through, so many things we've done to each other. If we want to make this work, maybe we should look at this walk as our first date. I could court you. I never got to do that."

As much as the idea appealed to her, she had a hard time believing that their problems would just disappear. Nevertheless, starting over would mean she could go back to her room when they got home, and possibly spend the afternoon with Ares later, whereas she had no idea what picking up where they left off would entail. "I would like that."

"You would?" Hephaestus was so overjoyed that he took her in his arms. The feel of her body against his flooded his mind with memories from the beginning of their marriage. "Oh, Aphrodite," he cooed into her ear, "I've missed you so much."

Aphrodite hadn't seen him this openly affectionate in ages. She'd wanted him to be this way for so long that, now that he was, she wasn't sure if she could trust what he was saying. After a moment, she wriggled out of his embrace and mentioned that they probably shouldn't walk too much longer, as she didn't want him to strain his leg.

"Yes, that is probably a good idea," remarked Hephaestus. "I'd almost forgotten about my leg. What would I do without you?"

Aphrodite was wondering the same thing.


	12. Aphrodite II

Once they reached the door to their palace, Hephaestus told her that he was going to go on to his forge and complete his daily work, but that he would miss her, and he looked forward to seeing her when she came home. Then he lightly kissed her good bye, softly caressed her cheek, and left her on the porch.

Aphrodite, reeling from everything that had happened that morning, made her way inside and flopped herself onto her favorite couch.

Start over…

She'd thought it was Hephaestus's cold treatment of her that repelled her, but that wasn't right. Just yesterday – goodness, that was only yesterday –he'd wanted to help her with her research, and he noticed that she was upset when she came down from the bathroom. This sort of behavior wasn't cold. And if she took his leg out of the equation, he was handsome, in an honest, sweet sort of way.

But he still repelled her…

Here he was, saying he wanted to work on their relationship, lavishing attention on her, suddenly acting like the perfect husband… but she still didn't want him.

She wondered what he would want to do when he came home, and she hoped that his definition of starting over meant he would want to take things slow. Thinking about lying in bed next to him made her feel like Hephaestus's net was smothering her all over again, except this time, it was entrapping her with Hephaestus. She could imagine his arms twisting around her under the net, his hands groping her, his body on top of her, weighing her down… And everyone so afraid of his wrath, no one would ever set her free.

She wanted to cry.

She should have been so happy, she thought. It seemed like she was now getting the kind of marriage everyone wanted - if Zeus had ever been so attentive to Hera, so faithful, so concerned about their relationship, Hera would be a completely different person. She might have even been friends with her.

Maybe Eros was right, thought Aphrodite. Maybe Hephaestus really did love her.

But had she ever loved him?

She'd been married against her will to a man that she, at first, could only see as a drunken, lustful brute. Their first night together had made her skin crawl: she'd barely known him, had felt no physical attraction to him whatsoever, and, believing Hephaestus had chosen her simply for her beauty, had felt horribly objectified. All she could think about the entire time was how awful it was that she was now fated to spend her immortal existence with this man, and how depressing it was that this man wasn't Ares.

Can one ever start over from that?


	13. The Return of Hephaestus

**The Return of Hephaestus**

_One day, Hera was making an appearance at one of her temples when she spotted a beautiful golden throne, large enough for her to sit on. She asked the most pious of her priestesses where the throne had come from. They replied that a local man had made it, and that though they didn't know his name, they knew he had made it as a gift for her._

_Hera had never seen a more intricately designed throne before, and believing it would make the gods on Mount Olympus seethe with envy, she accepted the gift and had her nymphs bring it home to her palace._

_Once it had arrived, she immediately sat on it and called her husband over so she could show it off. Zeus walked around the throne to admire its craftsmanship. Believing no divine hand could create anything better, he asked Hera if he could try throne out himself_

_Reluctantly, she decided to oblige him, but when she tried to get up, she found that she was stuck. It was as if the throne was holding her fast to her seat.  
_

_Zeus thought she was playing and started laughing, but she assured him she wasn't joking. She begged him to get her out of the chair, but as hard as Zeus pulled, she didn't budge.  
_

_Frantic, he called over everyone on Mount Olympus and made them all try their hand at removing her from the chair, but no one could get her out. "Find the man who made this!" Zeus shouted to Hermes. This person needed to be punished._

_

* * *

_

_Hermes soon found the man. He was working at a forge in a cave, and Hermes could see that he walked with a cane.  
_

"_I am Hermes," he told the smith, "messenger of the gods, and you have been summoned to Mount Olympus."_

"_What for," replied the man, nonchalantly, turning his back to Hermes to place something in the forge._

"_The priestesses of the temple have informed me that you are the one who made the throne for Hera. You are to come with me and free her from it."_

"_I have no intention of doing so." _

_Hermes flew around the man so he could look him in the face. "But the gods have commanded you to do it!"_

"_I have crippled her just as she crippled me. Her pride made it so. Tell her I will not free her."_

_This was not a message Hermes was happy to relate. "She'll want to know who you are."_

"_I am Hephaestus. Of Mount Olympus."_

_

* * *

_

_When Hermes told Hera these things, her face fell so white that Zeus was afraid she was going to faint. _

"_Do you know this man?" asked Zeus._

"_He is my son," she replied. "I created him myself."_

_Zeus stared at his wife in disbelief. "He says you crippled him. What does he mean?"_

"_When I saw that he was deformed, I was ashamed, and I threw him off Mount Olympus." Hera was too embarrassed to look her husband. "It must have been the fall."_

_Zeus shook his head. For the first time in his life, he felt powerless to do anything. _

_He turned to the other gods in the room. "Whoever can bring this Hephaestus here to free my wife from this throne may have anything they desire. I will make it so." Zeus remembered he was in charge of the Moirae – he still had the power to bend fate._

_

* * *

_

_Ares took Zeus up on his offer, as he desired to rule over all of Mount Olympus with his lover Aphrodite by his side as his queen. "I am the god of war", he said to the crowd. "I'll make him come back." No one had ever faced the blade of his sword and lived – surely this would frighten Hephaestus enough to come free Hera._

_When Ares entered the cave and saw Hephaestus, he raised his sword. "Get out of this cave, you beast, and free your mother!"_

_I have no mother," Hephaestus replied, and he kept working.  
_

"_This is your last warning! If you refuse again, I shall smite you with the Sword of War!"_

_Hephaestus rolled his eyes without missing a beat on his anvil. _

"_You give me no choice – today you die!" Ares bellowed a battle cry and charged at Hephaestus._

_At that moment, Hephaestus turned away from his work - his hammer still in his hand. When Ares was close enough, he swung the hammer at the sword, smashing it to pieces. _

_Ares stopped in his tracks. He stared speechless at the pieces of his sword on the ground._

"_You may go now," said Hephaestus, and he returned to his work. "Tell Hera I will not free her."_

_

* * *

_

_Ares returned to Mount Olympus with the pieces of his sword in his hands, and told everyone what had happened._

_Athena started laughing. "Your poor sword," she teased, "I thought you said it was unbreakable!"_

_That gave Dionysus an idea. "I will go," he announced, "and I promise you, Hera, that you will be free by sundown."_

_

* * *

_

_Dionysus entered the cave and called out to Hephaestus. "I must say, I'm very impressed with your work. What a perfect gift – now Hera can be the center of attention all day." Dionysus chuckled, his laugh echoing through the cave._

_Hephaestus stopped. "You're not here to bring me to Mount Olympus, are you?"_

"_No, I'm here to commend you! We haven't had such excitement up there in years! Would you care for something to drink?" Dionysus held out a bottle of wine and smiled at Hephaestus._

"_I guess I could take a break," he replied, and took a swig of the wine._

_A few hour later, Dionysus had learned Hephaestus's entire life story, had heard the purpose of all of the tools around his forge, and had be told all the practical uses of a hammer and anvil. Dionysus had also made Hephaestus incredibly drunk._

"_... and that is why the an- the anvil is shaped the way it is," hiccupped Hephaestus._

"_That is absolutely fascinating, Hephaestus," replied Dionysus. "What you do is extraordinary. Zeus should enlist you as the official smithy of Mount Olympus!"_

"_Thangyou," slurred Hephaestus. _

"_You know, come to think of it, I'm surprised no one has come by while we've been here to cart you off and take you to free Hera. Zeus is so desperate that he's telling them they can have whatever they want if they bring you to her. Absolutely anything."_

"_How come you aren't dra- aren't dra – aren't dragging me there yourself?" Hephaestus's hiccups were getting worse._

"_I have all the wine I could ever drink, my friend, what more do I need?" Dionysus raised another wine bottle and gave a big belly laugh. _

_Hephaestus laughed with him and downed some more wine. "I wish I had the chance to have whatever I wanted," he said after a while._

"_What would you ask for?" Dionysus leaned in toward Hephaestus as if he were about to hear a secret._

"_I'd want a wife," he said._

"_That's it? A wife?" Dionysus chuckled._

"_That's it. No one around here will marry me – I tell them I was born on Mount Olympus, and then they take one look at my leg and think I'm crazy." Hephaestus's face sank._

"_You should ask for your leg to be fixed, instead" egged Dionysus, "then you could have affairs with lots of women."_

"_If I had a wife who loved me, I wouldn't care about my leg," mumbled Hephaestus, looking down into his wine bottle._

_Dionysus was touched. "Then we are getting you a wife!" he exclaimed, patting Hephaestus on the back. "I have an idea."_

_Hephaestus scoffed at Dionysus - how could he get him a wife?  
_

"_No really, I think this will work! Hear me out - what if you came to Mount Olympus on your own? That way, you'd be the one who brought Hephaestus to Mount Olympus, and Zeus would have to give you whatever you wanted!" Dionysus gave Hephaestus a big smile._

"_Do you think he'd do that?"_

"_If you free Hera and get her to stop whining, I think Zeus will do anything."_

_Hephaestus threw the bottle to the side. "Let's go!"_

_

* * *

_

_Dionysus walked with Hephaestus as far as the gate to Mount Olympus. After that, he had him go on alone. _

_When Zeus saw him enter the palace and noticed his cane, he was overcome with rage. "So you're Hephaestus?"_

"_Yes, I am," announced Hephaestus, hiccupping again, "and I have brought myself to Mount Olympus. That means I get whatever I want."_

_Dionysus took this moment to slip into the room. Zeus eyed him as he entered, finally understanding what he had done._

"_Free my wife and I will grant you what you wish."_

_Hephaestus was about to go to Hera when Dionysus interrupted him. "No, Hephaestus, make sure he gives you want you want first."_

"_That's a good idea!" shouted Hephaestus, slurring his words. _

_Dionysus smiled. Hephaestus was a good guy. He deserved to be happy._

_Zeus shook his head at Dionysus – he didn't like being blackmailed._

"_Zeus," continued Hephaestus, turning toward him. "I want a wife."_

"_That's it?" asked Zeus, stunned._

"_That's it."_

"_Very well then, that can be arranged. Who would you like?"_

"_I get to choose?" Hephaestus hadn't expected he would get a choice._

_Zeus found Hephaestus's apparent naïveté amusing. "You got yourself here, so you get to choose. In fact, why don't you pick a goddess? You are the son of Hera, after all." Zeus had a feeling he knew the goddess Hephaestus was going to pick. If he chose her, he thought, it would solve so many problems around here, and no one would be able to fight over her anymore._

_Hephaestus looked around the room. All the women were so beautiful; this was so intimidating. _

_Then he saw her - the real Aphrodite - in the flesh. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. And if he were married to the goddess of love, he thought, he would never be lonely again._

"_I want her."_

_Ares shot his head toward Aphrodite. He can't... No... This wasn't right. Surely she'll refuse...  
_

_But Aphrodite said nothing. She was so in shock that she wasn't able to move. Zeus couldn't make her do this, she thought. She couldn't marry this drunk, spiteful, deformed man - she didn't love him.  
_

_"Zeus, please," Ares burst out. Why wasn't she saying anything?  
_

_Zeus, however, was glad to hear him pick Aphrodite. It would let him solve one problem with another. "Hephaestus has made his decision. Aphrodite, please step forward."_

_By sundown, Hera was free from her throne, as Dionysus had promised. And by sundown, Aphrodite and Hephaestus were married._


	14. Eros and Hephaestus

Eros was already having a bad day, and now, it had gotten worse. He was out of arrows.

That meant he would have to go see Hephaestus and get some new ones.

Why today, he thought, of all days do I run out of arrows? He couldn't bear to face Hephaestus – not after advising the woman he loved how to divorce him.

But Eros knew needed to go. He'd already shot one human with an arrow; he needed to shoot the other one. So he trudged his way to Hephaestus's forge.

The forge he used now was set inside a volcano on the island of Milos. The cave was almost a maze, with lava tubes running in every direction. Hephaestus had deliberately placed his forge as deep in the cave as it could practically go - he liked to work alone, and he didn't want mortals stumbling in to see what he was doing.

Eros navigated his way with ease, as he had visited Hephaestus so many times before. He knew every turn to take, and when it grew too dark to see, he would simply place his hands on the dank walls and feel around for the right openings in the stone.

Soon, he began to see a soft glow of light before him again, and he could hear the ringing of Hephaestus' hammer. The louder the ringing echoed, the more nervous Eros became, and he was tempted to turn around and come back later to steal what he needed. Then it occurred to him that this was probably the last time Eros would get to have a friendly conversation with Hephaestus, so he pressed on.

"Sorry to interrupt you, Hephaestus, but –"

"Eros!" Hephaestus yelled, dropping his hammer. "It's so good to see you! How have you been?"

Eros didn't exactly know how to answer that question, and seeing Hephaestus so happy made it harder to lie. "Fine. How have you been?"

"I've been – Oh Eros, today has been – ", Hephaestus laughed. "I'm so happy I can't even talk!"

This day is just getting worse, thought Eros. "What happened?"

A big smile blossomed across Hephaestus's face. "Aphrodite said she loves me. Listen to me, I sound like a schoolboy!" Hephaestus started laughing again, the sound of which stung Eros to his core.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" He must have misheard him.

"She said she loves me. Aphrodite loves me!"

"She said this to you..." Maybe it was Hephaestus who had misheard things.

"I overheard her say it to Hera. She was so upset at her that she just started shouting things, and she told her she loves me."

If this was part of one of Aphrodite's schemes, thought Eros, then this was particularly cruel. Then again, he could picture his mother becoming upset enough with Hera to say whatever popped into her head without thinking.

"Wow," he said, realizing Aphrodite could actually on some level be in love with Hephaestus.

"We've decided to start our relationship over. I'm going to take her out on dates and court her."

"But you'll still be married?" Eros had a feeling that his mother had agreed to 'start over' with Hephaestus as a way to leave him.

"Yes, we'll still be married. We haven't worked all of it out yet; we're probably going to talk about it this afternoon. I swear, Eros, all this time I thought she was in love with Ares. I've never been so happy in my entire life!"

Oh, Hephaestus, thought Eros. He watched him giddily darting around the forge and felt sorry for him. Aphrodite was probably with Ares right now, maybe asking him to help her get a divorce, and here's Hephaestus thinking his wife wanted to save their relationship. Part of Eros wanted to take a golden arrow and prick his mother with it just to save Hephaestus the terrible fall that was sure to come.

"I've run out of arrows again," said Eros after watching him for a while.

"Oh yes, of course! I have some sitting right here ready for you." Hephaestus pulled out a quiver full of arrows and handed them to Eros. "There's a nice variety in there - tell me if you need any more of a certain kind, and I'll make more of it for next time."

"I'm sure this will do fine." Eros gingerly took the quiver from Hephaestus and slung it over his back, dropping the empty one by his side. "If you don't mind my asking, what are you making?"

"I was making a new triton for Poseidon, but it didn't take as long to finish as I'd thought it would, so now I'm making a ring for Aphrodite. I want to give it to her as a surprise for when our courtship is over and I ask her to marry me again." He raised the ring into the air and admired it in his hand. "I thought it could symbolize out eternal bound to each other. Do you want to see it?"

Eros really wanted to say something – the longer this went on, the worse it would be for Hephaestus to take. But instead, he quietly glided toward him see the ring. It was beautiful – a pearl set in silver, delicately engraved with doves, sparrows, and swans all flying above the lilting waves of an ocean.

"I'm thinking of engraving it with some words on the inside and maybe adding a meadow scene with some horses chasing each other around a grove of myrtles. I know she likes those. What do you think?"

"I think she would like that." Eros was at a loss, what else could he say?

Hephaestus placed the ring back on the stand where he was working. "Well, I'm sure you have places to go and people to make fall in love. Tell Psyche hello for me when you see her."

"I'll do that. Have a nice afternoon, Hephaestus." Who knows what the evening will bring you, he thought, and he flew away from the forge and out of the cave.


	15. Ares and Aphrodite

As soon as his battle was over, Ares ran as fast as he could to see Aphrodite. With the entire duration of the battle to think about what may have happened, he concluded that Hephaestus must have done something awful to her, scaring her into acting in public as if they were… he couldn't even think it.

He had to save her.

Seeing Hephaestus holding hands and laughing with Aphrodite had flung him into a jealous rage, which had only gotten worse as the day progressed. When he reached Aphrodite's home, he burst down the door and went straight to her bedroom.

Aphrodite, who was still lying on the couch in the parlor, found this very alarming. He'd shot by her so fast, he couldn't even tell who he was.

"Aphrodite!" he yelled, when he didn't see her in bed. "Where are you?"

She breathed a sigh of relief and sat up - it was Ares. "In the parlor," she cried.

Ares bounded down the stairs and crashed into the parlor. "Where's Hephaestus?"

"At his forge," she replied.

Without a second thought, Ares took hold of Aphrodite in his arms and kissed her so passionately, she momentarily forgot about everything that had happened that morning.

After some time, Ares pulled himself back. "What were you doing with Hephaestus this morning?"

"Don't remind me – just kiss me again," she whispered, hoping if he did, she could forget it all entirely.

"Not unless you tell me. Did he hurt you?"

She was touched that Ares was feeling so protective of her. "No, he just kissed me last night."

"He did what?" Ares roared.

"And he may think that I'm in love with him," she muttered under her breath.

Ares slid away from Aphrodite on the couch. "What? Why would he think that?"

"Please, Ares, let's not talk about it," she said sliding toward him. "We don't have much time together."

Ares stood up from the couch. "Do you love him?"

"No, absolutely not!" she yelled, as much for herself as for Ares. "Please sit with me, Ares. I've been having such awful dreams. I'm so afraid." She could feel tears welling up inside her, so she covered her face with her hands.

Ares sat back down beside her, struck by what he was seeing. "What were you dreaming about?" he asked her softly.

"I was trapped under the net Hephaestus trapped us in, except I was by myself, and the net kept getting tighter and tighter, so tight I could bare move. I could see Hephaestus through the holes, and I begged him to let me out, but he just had this big smile on his face, and then he started cackling…" Aphrodite turned to Ares, buried her face in his chest, and started sobbing.

Ares put his arms around her and pulled her tighter to him. "I would never let that happen."

"But if he could do that to me, he could do that to you."

"I'd get him when he didn't have his hammer with him," he reassured her.

She snuggled closer to him and turned her face to the side. "He said he wants us to start over."

"Start over?"

"He wants to pretend like none of it ever happened. He wants to court me."

Ares didn't like the sound of this. Hephaestus was trying to take his woman away from him. No one took anything away from Ares. "Is that what you want?"

Aphrodite tried to say she wanted to leave Hephaestus, but the words wouldn't come out. "I don't know if I can forget everything he's done."

Ares was thankful to hear her say that. Overcome, he tilted his head so he could gaze into her eyes and started stroking her hair. "Sometimes I think that we were once fated for each other – that if Zeus hadn't made you marry Hephaestus, then the fates would've had you marry me." Then, he tenderly kissed her on the lips. While most days he was satisfied sneaking around with Aphrodite and pretending Hephaestus didn't exist, this was not one of them.

Aphrodite wrapped her arms around Ares. She never wanted to let him go.

That afternoon, as Hephaestus put the finishing touches on the ring he was making his wife, Aphrodite and Ares made love on his couch.


	16. Ares, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus

Aphrodite was sure that Hephaestus would come home soon – he might even come home earlier than usual, considering how he had been that morning. Not wanting them to get caught, she shoved Ares off the couch to wake him up.

"What was that for?" he teased.

"You need to go. Hephaestus will be home soon." She pulled his tunic out from under her and threw it to him.

"Let him catch us. I don't care about Hephaestus." He started crawling back on the couch.

"Well, I do. You need to go." Wait, that didn't come out right…

Ares peered up at her from the floor. "What do you mean, you do?"

"I just mean I don't want him to get hurt," she said, scrambling for an answer.

"You know what," said Ares, pushing himself by the couch to his feet with a sneer. "I think you do care about him. I think you want to start over with him. That's why you don't want to get caught. I see how it is."

"Ares, how can you say those things? You, of all people, know–"

"I'm going home," he spat, yanking his tunic back on. "Have fun with your husband."

Aphrodite jumped to her feet to hurl her arms around him, but he was already half-way out the door. "Ares, don't leave like this! Please!"

"Sorry, Aphrodite, I wouldn't want to _hurt_ Hephaestus," he countered, and he kicked the door on his way out.

Aphrodite crumpled onto the couch and carefully put herself back together. She tried to think of something that would keep her from crying… Not Ares… Not Hephaestus…

Her quest…

She could go to earth again. She'd go tomorrow, while Hephaestus was at the forge. That's what she'd do.

Pushing her thoughts toward what she'd do tomorrow, she wandered to the shelf to grab a scroll to distract herself with.

As she as she sat down to read it, she could hear Hephaestus's cane on the porch.

"What happened here?" he exclaimed, poking his cane at the door.

"Ares," she said.

Hephaestus had figured Ares would've come over while he was away at the forge. Aphrodite looked a little upset, so he didn't want to push it. "I guess his battle didn't go well," he remarked.

Something like that, she thought. "I'm sorry about the door."

"It just came off the hinges; I can fix it." He smiled at Aphrodite and went to sit next to her on the couch. "What are you reading?"

Aphrodite glanced down at the scroll. "It's a book of philosophy. It was just something to read until you got here."

"Well, I'm here," he joked, putting a hand on her back. "How about we leave this place and get some fresh air? Poseidon gave me a ship to spruce up, and he said I could take it for a ride if I want. Is that something you would like to do?"

A break from this place was exactly what she needed, she thought. "That sounds perfect."

"I'm so glad, because I've set up a little surprise for you on it," Hephaestus said with a mischievous grin.

"You did?"

"Well, technically I didn't set it up what we're going to see, but I did set up a nice feast for you. I thought it could be like a date."

Aphrodite could tell Hephaestus had put a lot of thought into this. "You really set all of that up for me?"

"I would set a feast for you every night if you wanted me to," replied Hephaestus. "Aphrodite," he continued, taking a deep breath. "I've been doing a lot of thinking, and there's something I want to say to you. I know you wouldn't have married me if you'd had the choice, and when I heard how close you'd been to Ares before our marriage, I... sort of lost my mind. And then, when I found out that you were still with him, I… Before we officially start over, I want to apologize to you. I've done so many horrible things, and you have no idea how desperately I wish I could take them all back." Hephaestus looked as if he was about to cry. "I should have tried to understand what you were going through, but I... When I think about how much I must have hurt you, I can't… I love you so much, and –"

Before Hephaestus could finish his sentence, Aphrodite leaned forward and kissed him so ardently, Hephaestus felt dizzy.

"Let's go to the boat," she told him. She didn't know what had come over her, but at that moment, she didn't care, and she took his hand as he led her to the sea.


	17. The Birth of Eros

**The Birth of Eros**

_During the beginning of their marriage, Hephaestus was euphoric, believing himself to be the luckiest god on Mount Olympus, as he had married the most beautiful, most compassionate woman in the entire world. Every day, he would bring her home gifts he made for her in his forge, and every night, he would sleep beside her and dream of what their life would be like together._

_Aphrodite, however, could not return his affection. The gifts he brought her, in her eyes, only emphasized her bad luck, and having to lie beside him at night, feeling one of his arms limply draped across her waist, made it impossible for her to go to sleep. But this was her husband now, not Ares, so she tried to make the best of her situation. She accepted his gifts with warm gratitude, and at night, she would close her eyes and keep very still, hoping eventually she would succumb to her exhaustion._

_She tried to fulfill all the duties that she felt a proper wife should do, however alien it all felt, but still it wasn't enough. She felt restless, and even though she had a husband who seemed to love her with all his being, she felt alone. Sometimes, she would go to earth and make personal appearances to her worshipers, almost living vicariously through them. Hearing their troubles, she would feel compelled to help them in any way she could, even going as far as to bring a statue to life so one man could have someone to love. As time went by, she would spend more and more of her day on earth, until eventually, she only came home in the evenings to rest._

_This worried Hephaestus, but his wife had her responsibilities, so he never asked her what she was doing._

_On one of these afternoons, Ares happened to come across Aphrodite as she was napping in a meadow. He hadn't been alone with her since before her marriage to Hephaestus, and however much he knew he shouldn't linger, he couldn't bring himself to leave. _

_Slowly, as if in a trance, he began to approach her. He wouldn't wake her, he thought, he'd just get a better view of her. He wanted to remember her this way forever._

_As he crept toward her, though, he accidentally stepped on a stick, and the sound of it breaking woke her up._

"_Ares," she murmured. "What are you doing here?"_

"_I- I didn't mean to wake you. I was just on my way to visit a soldier, and… here you were." His eyes were soft with longing._

"_Oh, Ares," she repeated, and reached out to him._

"_Aphrodite," he sighed, and he rushed toward her. _

_

* * *

_

_Soon after, Aphrodite learned that she was pregnant. The news made Hephaestus ecstatic, and he showered her with more gifts and affection, believing the child was his own. Aphrodite did nothing to correct his assumption, and she tried to suppress any feelings of guilt she had as she watched him gleefully announce to everyone that he was going to be a father.  
_

_As the child grew, Hephaestus's joy was joined by worry, as he was afraid that their child would have feet like his own. _

_When he spoke of his anxiety, she would always try to reassure him - telling him that she didn't care, that however their baby would look would be perfect, and that no one on Mount Olympus would dare tease the child of Hephaestus and Aphrodite. Hephaestus began to rely on her confidence, which had come easily for her, since she had a strong feeling that the child within her would inherit no such deformity.  
_

_When the baby was born, they named him Eros. In appearance, he took after his mother, and his feet were perfect._

_Overjoyed, Hephaestus decided he would make Aphrodite a stunning necklace. He had always found it difficult to express to Aphrodite how he felt, so he decided he would imbue the necklace with all the luck it would carry, so he could show her just how happy she had made him.  
_


	18. Aphrodite and Hephaestus

As she walked to the pier with Hephaestus, Aphrodite began thinking about how much everything in her life had changed in the last couple of days.

Just yesterday, Ares had been simply a lover – a reignited fling from the past that yes, she cared about, but had no deep feelings for anymore, and both had been perfectly content with their illicit arrangement. Then this afternoon, it had seemed as if Ares wanted her all to himself, and they'd shared a moment of passion the intensity of which the two hadn't experienced together in decades.

This shift in circumstance was surprising in itself, but even so, it could not compare to the transformation she had witnessed in her husband. Hephaestus had become, in less than twenty-four hours, a caring, compassionate spouse, considerate of her feelings, and above all, desirous of her forgiveness, without asking anything from her in return, even though she had been the one who had cheated on him. Now, he openly expressed how he felt about her, and to her astonishment, what he chose to express with his every word and every action was that he still loved her.

And then there was the change in Aphrodite herself. Last night, she had been set on divorcing her husband, believing herself to be in a loveless marriage and feeling overwhelmed by the emotional scars of their past. That afternoon, she'd been frightened of Hephaestus, scared that he would try to control her and and possibly take away whatever rights and freedoms she had left.

But now, she wasn't sure what she wanted. The new Hephaestus seemed so charming, so incapable of hurting her, that she was too curious to let him go.

Thinking about it all made her dizzy.

"Here we are," announced Hephaestus. "This is the boat. I'm not sure how I'm going to decorate it yet – I kind of like the way it looks right now. The clean lines, the simplicity… It only has what it needs. What do you think?"

Aphrodite cocked her head to the side and looked at the boat. "I like it," she replied. "It has a certain… rawness to it. It looks so… natural." Wow, that sounded dumb, she thought.

Hephaestus smiled. He was function; she was form – things just might work out between them. "Come with me. I've set up the feast right over here."

As they ate together, and they talked about this and that, Hephaestus's smile never faded. He'd missed talking with her, and now that he had the chance, he asked her all sorts of questions about what she thought and how she felt. He wished the night could go on forever.

Aphrodite had to keep reminding herself that this was all real. The food was so delicious, the boat was so peaceful, and Hephaestus was so… alive. She'd always thought he'd just liked her because of her beauty and that he'd made all those gifts for her just because they'd look pretty on her – and she wondered how she could have been so wrong all this time.

"Hephaestus, why do you love me?"

Her question startled him. "How could I not love you? You're so passionate, so creative, so sensitive… You stand up for what you believe in… You are love." He was glad that, while he was working on at his forge, he'd thought of things that he could say to her. If he'd had to answer a question like that on the spot, the whole night might have been ruined.

She was love, repeated Aphrodite in her head. How could she be love when she didn't even know what it was? "What makes you say that?" she continued.

They were beginning to reach conversational territory Hephaestus wasn't ready for, and this particular question made him feel especially uncomfortable - all the things he could think of that made her the embodiment of love were things that had driven her away from him in the first place. He had to be careful. "I've heard about some of the ways you've helped people on earth," he said, "allowing them to be with the people they love. You are love because you give love to others."

Aphrodite had never thought about it that way before – with her being the goddess of love, the world technically had to see love by her definition. Perhaps the world didn't know what love was, either.

"That's very sweet," she told Hephaestus.

"Why do you love me?" he asked. Since he hadn't believed that Aphrodite loved him until a few hours ago, he was anxious to hear her answer.

Aphrodite didn't know what to say. Not only was she unsure what love even meant, but, whatever it was, she didn't think that she felt it for Hephaestus - or at least, not in the sense he meant. She did care enough about him not to want to hurt his feelings – maybe she could go with why she felt that way.

"Because… you are well-meaning… And thoughtful - just look at this boat, you think of everything... And honest. You would never deceive me." Trying to think of ways to compliment Hephaestus was started to depress her. She may not be in love with him, but he at least he wouldn't have run off with someone else behind her back. He didn't deserve that. She tilted her head down and started poking at the food on her plate.

Hephaestus could tell Aphrodite's mood was sinking, so he changed the subject. "The other surprise is about to start."

Aphrodite looked back up at Hephaestus. "What is it?"

"You can see it better from over here," he said, walking to the edge of the boat. "This way you can see the lights reflect off the water."

"What light?" she asked, and she got up to follow him.

"Hera told me Athena is adding a constellation to the sky tonight. Have you heard of the hero Perseus and his wife Andromeda?"

"I've heard of Perseus, but not his wife."

"Her mother, Cassiopeia, had been bragging that she was more beautiful than the Nereids, which made Poseidon really angry, since he's good friends with their father and all, so to punish her, he sent a horrible sea monster named Cetus to ravage the coast of her kingdom. It would attack every ship that came into the harbor, until it got to the point that no one would trade with the kingdom anymore. Andomeda's father, the king, eventually got so desperate that he went to consult an oracle. The oracle told him that the only way to make the monster go away was to sacrifice his own daughter - that he'd have to leave her by the sea and let the monster devour her. Well, luckily for Andromeda, as the king was chaining her to a cliff, Perseus happened to sail by. When he saw her, he instantly fell in love with her, and he decided to go and save her. When he got to the shore, the king told Perseus that if he could slay the monster Cetus, he could marry Andromeda. So, Perseus being Perseus, he slayed the sea monster, married Andromeda, and took her back home with him to Tiryns."

"And they all lived happily ever after," Aphrodite teased.

"They did,"said Hephaestus. "Andromeda passed away recently, so Athena is putting her image in the stars. I hear they're going to do one of Perseus, Pegasus, and even Cassiopeia, too."

"Why Cassiopeia?"

"I think Poseidon wants to make a statement," Hephaestus remarked with a chuckle.

As he spoke, a bright light shot across the heavens.

"It's starting," he said, and he put his arm around Aphrodite.

The streak of light broke into pieces, and the new stars began to dance around the sky. As the lights bounced around, their reflections bounced with them, as if the waves were their partners in some mystical waltz.

"It's beautiful," whispered Aphrodite.

After a few minutes, the dancing began to slow down, and the stars eventually found their permanent positions in the night sky. Aphrodite and Hephaestus both stood there for a few minutes, admiring the new constellation in each other's arms.

"Did you like it?" Hephaestus asked her after a while.

"That was amazing, Hephaestus," she replied, turning toward him.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," he said, and he removed his arms from around Aphrodite. "I guess you could say this was our second date. I should escort you home now."

He was really getting into this, thought Aphrodite.

Hephaestus took her hand again, and they walked home together. Once they were inside, he led her to her to the door of her room.

"Sleep well," he said, then he kissed the hand that he'd been holding and turned as if to go to his own room.

"You're not coming in with me?" Aphrodite asked him.

"We've only had two dates. I am courting you after all." Hephaestus grinned at the thought of Aphrodite wanting him to sleep in her room, and he bowed his head to her. "Good night, Aphrodite."

"Good night, Hephaestus."

And with that, they both went into their own bedrooms, both reflecting on how perfect their evening together had been.


	19. Hera

Meanwhile, Hera, still incensed from her argument with Aphrodite that morning, was confronting her husband as they lay in bed beside each other.

"I think you enable them all. You go around sleeping with other women, so they think it's OK for them to sleep around, too."

Zeus heaved a sleepy sigh. "Can't we talk about this in the morning?"

"No, I'm not letting you dismiss me again. This is important!"

"It's always important," mumbled Zeus.

"You need to make a statement," she continued, ignoring him. "Take Aphrodite, for instance – "

"Let me guess, she did something to offend you," he groaned as he hugged his pillow and rolled over.

"That is beside the point!" she exclaimed, pulling him back toward her. "You didn't even do anything to when Hephaestus caught her with Ares! What do you think that says to the other gods?"

"It says that their private lives are none of my business."

"Well, marriages are my business, and you're my husband - you're supposed to support my interests!" She was determined not to let Zeus go to sleep until he assured her he was going to punish Aphrodite.

"I do support your interests, dear," he said automatically.

"Then why don't you make an example of her? Let it be known that love isn't supposed to act this way."

Zeus groaned and sat up in bed. "You mean let _me_ know, don't you?"

"Well," Hera considered, "it wouldn't –"

"Don't you think that would be a little hypocritical?" Zeus interrupted. If Hera wanted an argument, then he was going to make her regret it.

Hera was tired to putting up with Zeus's affairs, tired comparing herself to his mistresses, tired of trying to make him love her… but the perfect Greek wife always looked the other way, so she swallowed her tongue. "You would be the exception, dear, of course," she guiled, hating herself for what she was saying. "It would be a message for the others to show them how inferior to you they are."

Zeus knew a scheme when he heard one. "I don't think that would be very wise. Besides, what could I do to her that Hephaestus hasn't already done?"

"You could divorce them." If Aphrodite wasn't going to respect marriage, then she didn't deserve to be in one, even if Aphrodite had said that she loved her husband.

Zeus couldn't believe what his wife was asking him to do. "That is their decision, Hera, not mine."

"Oh, but on the contrary, it is your decision. You overrode the Moirae when you married them; you changed their fates. Unless you take back what you've done, fate will always find a way to keep them together. They couldn't divorce each other if they tried."

Zeus could feel the atmosphere changing in the room. This was no simple scheme, this was cold-blooded revenge. He wanted no part of it. "Hera, I am going to sleep. I suggest you do the same."

Hera didn't respond – there was nothing more she could do right now, she thought, but perhaps with a little more coaxing, Zeus might start leaning in her direction. As she brainstormed ways she could convince her husband to end her son's marriage to Aphrodite, her eyelids began to droop, and she fell asleep.


	20. Part III: Revelations

"Good morning, Aphrodite," Hephaestus cooed when he saw her enter the parlor.

Aphrodite looked back at Hephaestus in his chair with a smile. "Good morning, Hephaestus."

"How did you sleep?"

"Like a baby," she replied, stretching her arms. "And you?"

"Truthfully, I barely slept at all."

Aphrodite crinkled her brow with concern. "Is something wrong?"

Hephaestus let out a soft laugh and lifted his arms out toward her. "No, sweet Aphrodite, nothing is wrong. How could I sleep when my dreams could never compare to what I have when I'm awake?"

Such words – where had they come from all of sudden? Oh, who cares, she thought, as long as they kept coming. "I feel as if I'm living in a dream," she whispered to him, and, kneeling beside his chair, she fell into his arms and kissed him.

* * *

"Good morning, Hera," said Zeus, who had awoken with a crick in his neck and was trying to massage it away.

"Good morning, Zeus. Have you given any thought to what we talked about last night?" If he says no, then he'll learn the true meaning of a pain in the neck, she thought.

"What, you mean Aphrodite's marriage? The issue does not require my attention."

"But Zeus –"

"I've already said no, so drop it. And get me some ice for my neck." This was becoming one of those mornings where he wished he lived alone, thought Zeus. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on nursing his neck.

"I will do no such thing. I am your wife, not your servant."

"And what am I to you? All I asked you for was some ice. You, on the other hand, are asking me to end an entire marriage just so you can get back at Aphrodite. Listen, you're both pretty, alright – get over yourselves."

Hera was now boiling with anger. How dare he speak to her in that tone, even he was her husband and her king. She was a goddess, too, she thought. Perhaps she needed to remind him of that.

"Fine," she sneered in a musical but sarcastic manner, "I'll go get you some ice." Oh, he'll be getting some ice, alright, she thought.

With a response like that, Zeus wasn't so sure he wanted any ice she would bring him – she sounded as if she was in the mood to put poison in it. He hoped this wasn't an omen for how the rest of his day would go.

* * *

"Good morning, Aph…"

After staying up all night thinking about his afternoon with Aphrodite, Ares had begun to feel bad about the way he had stormed out of her home. He had no reason to feel jealous, he'd concluded. After everything she had talked about, and done, with him, she couldn't possibly have feelings for that horrible man. She was simply frightened of what he might do if he caught them together again - that was all.

So why, when Ares came over to apologize for storming out on her, was she kissing him that way?

Ares interrupted them with a cough. "You need to fix your door," he said, glowering at Hephaestus.

Keeping his arms symbolically wrapped around Aphrodite, who wanted more than anything to disappear, Hephaestus gave a sly grin. "Good morning, Ares."

* * *

_**Happy Chapter 20!**_

_**A big thank you to everyone who's been reading so far! I'm so glad that you've all been enjoying the story! I know some of these last chapters were a little hard on Hephaestus, but things seemed to have turned around for him, haven't they? **_

_**Or have they? *dramatic music* :)  
**_

_**As kind of a mini-celebration, I thought I would ask all of you what you think love is - just post it in a review!**_


	21. Ares, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus II

Aphrodite, frozen with shame, buried her head into Hephaestus's chest. Everything around her was changing so fast that she'd had no time to assess it all, and now her world just felt like one giant mess.

"Did you want something?" Hephaestus asked, taunting Ares. Hephaestus wondered how long it would take for Ares to realize that she didn't want him anymore, but if he needed to be reminded, then Hephaestus was more than happy to oblige.

Ares had always thought of himself as having captured Aphrodite's heart long before Hephaestus had even returned to Mount Olympus, so he'd never considered Hephaestus a viable threat – until now.

"Let go of her" he bellowed.

"I will when she wants me to let go." Hephaestus knew of his wife's inability to react when severely surprised – if he kept his arms around her, she might even stay that way until Ares leaves, he thought, depending on what Ares was willing to do. He also knew, however, that Aphrodite, when in command of senses, would hate having caused Ares any pain – she was love, after all. Thinking of this, he tried to convince himself that the former was the reason he refused to let her go - not the latter – and that he trusted Aphrodite well enough not to be afraid of what _she_ was willing to do.

Ares slid his sword partially out of his scabbard. This man had become the bane of his existence, and now that Ares was armed with the sword Hephaestus had crafted for him, he was confident in his ability to threaten Hephaestus into submission this time around. "I said let go of her, cripple!"

Aphrodite's head jerked up from where she'd been hiding it. "What did you just say?"

But Ares didn't hear her – when he was in conquest-mode, nothing could distract him from his target. "Don't make me hurt you, Hephaestus," he continued, removing his sword completely from its scabbard. "You know how powerful this sword is."

"Yes, I am aware. I made it."

"Then you're aware that I could kill you with it," continued Ares.

Aphrodite rose to her feet, letting Hephaestus's arms fall around her. "If you harm one hair on his head, Ares, so help me-"

But again, Ares didn't listen - all he could tell was that Hephaestus wasn't holding her anymore. "Looks like she wants you to let her go," he said, lifting the weapon and inspecting the blade. "Too bad – my sword is thirsty."'

"I am not going to fight you, Ares." I have no need, thought Hephaestus. The way you're carrying on, she'd take a sea monster over you.

"How can you allow yourself to be married to such a coward, Aphrodite? I would always fight for your love," Ares remarked, still admiring the blade.

"Of course you would. You'd fight for anything - you'd even make reasons up reasons to fight someone if you had to. Now leave my husband alone." Aphrodite began to question whether Ares was sincerely fighting for her, or whether he was simply miffed that someone had taken one of his distractions away.

"Oh, suddenly he's your husband, now," cracked Ares, pressing the tip of his sword his to the ground and holding it like a cane. "Tell me, does he know what you did yesterday while he was gone?"

"You don't have to tell me," whispered Hephaestus - it was clear to him what Ares was hinting at, and this time, he didn't want to know. His heart began to feel heavy within him, and he could feel that familiar sorrow knotting in his throat again. That was all before last night, though, he kept repeating in his head. Last night was different.

She wished Ares would just go away. "Hephaestus, I didn't-"

"Oh, yes you did," interrupted Ares. "And tell him what you told me."

"Aphrodite," he said, taking a deep breath and placing a hand on her shoulder, "that is all behind us now. I can feel it. You don't have to say anything."

Tears began welling up in her eyes. "But he's right, I told him I was afraid of you, and I was that afternoon, but I know now that you would never-"

Hephaestus closed his eyes and kissed her to make her stop talking. "That was yesterday," he finally said. "This is today. What do you want today? Don't think, just speak."

"I want Ares to go away," she replied, looking into Hephaestus's eyes and trying to keep herself from crying.

Ares couldn't believe what he was hearing. What had Hephaestus done to her? "You want what? But you-"

"You heard her," said Hephaestus, peering over his shoulder to Ares. "You are not welcome in our home. Please leave."

Ares was speechless. In what universe would Aphrodite choose Hephaestus over him? He hadn't thought it possible, but he now hated Hephaestus more than he had ever hated him before. As he left, he vowed himself to find a way to get back Aphrodite and to seek his revenge on Hephaestus.


	22. Aphrodite and Hephaestus II

As soon as Ares left, Aphrodite wrapped her arms around Hephaestus. "Let's run away together. We could go live on an island somewhere and never see any of these people ever again. What do you say?"

"Do you love him?"

"No, I don't", she said, with all honesty.

"Do you love me?"

That was the question she didn't want to answer.

"Tell me the truth." Please, he thought. He didn't know what he would do if she said no.

No more dragging this out, thought Aphrodite. It was time to come clean – how else could they really start over together? "The truth is I'm not even sure what it means to be in love. That's why I went to earth the other day – to find out what it meant."

Hephaestus wasn't sure what to think what she'd just said. "You told Hera you found Orpheus…"

"Yes, I did. All of that was true. I stumbled across him while he was giving a concert for the village I was visiting, and I sat and listened to him all day."

"All day?" he asked, with a note of skepticism

"All day," she replied, desperately wanting him to believe her.

Hephaestus took a moment to let everything sink in and sat back down in his chair. After a deep breath, he continued. "So that was the research you told me you were doing."

"Yes, it was."

Hephaestus eyes sank to the floor. He had been so happy basking in the love he thought Aphrodite felt for him, but now, he had nothing. How could she love him if she didn't even know what it was?

"And Orpheus didn't help you?"

"He said he was still in love with his wife, even though he must know she doesn't -"

Aphrodite's voice trailed off – this was starting to sound familiar.

"And it didn't make sense to you?" he asked in a manner that sounded more like a statement.

"No," she said under her breath.

"Maybe I can help," continued Hephaestus, still looking down at the floor. "Perhaps I am not the best person to explain it - my experience with love has not always been the healthiest… But I know what it is. I felt it when I thought you were still in love with Ares; I felt it when all of Mount Olympus was laughing at me for catching you with him; I felt it when I found out that our child wasn't mine… I've felt it since the first moment I saw you. My life until then had been so devoid of love, and there you were, exuding it from every pore. Despite everything that has happened between us, I can't stop feeling it. There have been times when I wished I didn't love you, I admit, and once I almost thought of asking Eros to prick me with a leaden arrow just to relieve me from my pain, but in the end I couldn't do it. You are my wife, and I love you – and nothing, not even the will of Zeus can change that."

Aphrodite was speechless. She knelt down before him so she could see his face. Looking into his eyes, it felt as if she were meeting him for the first time.

"If you've never loved me," said Hephaestus, "then I may as well have been in love with a ghost."

"Don't say that," murmured Aphrodite.

Hephaestus swallowed. "Love is many things at once, and it means different things to different people – that's why it doesn't make any sense. Most of the time, it is uncontrollable, like my love is for you. But then there are the times no one will tell you about – the times love becomes a choice. There are times you choose to follow your heart, even though you're afraid of getting hurt; times you choose to forgive someone, even though they've hurt you more deeply than you have ever known; and times you choose to keep someone in your life even though it would be easier to let them go. But that is love, too."

Aphrodite nervously took his hands in hers. "If that's the case, then I think love can also be a promise."

"What do you mean?"

"I promise not to be afraid of the past repeating itself… I promise not to be vague when I talk with you…"

A smile crept onto Hephaestus's face. "You've been talking with Eros, haven't you?"

Aphrodite kept going. "I promise to let you know how I feel, especially if I'm feeling lonely…"

"I would like that – I'm not very good at deciphering how people feel."

"And I promise never to go see Ares again."

Hephaestus couldn't believe what he was hearing, and she sounded as if she thoroughly meant what she'd said. "… Never?"

"Never," she continued, pulling his hands to her heart. "I really do want to start over with you, Hephaestus, if you'll forgive me."

"Aphrodite, I've forgiven you already," he said, leaning in toward her. "It was foolish of us to try to start over without talking about these things first. I'd like to make some promises to you, too, if that's OK."

"What could you possibly promise me that you haven't already done?" asked Aphrodite, baffled.

Hephaestus pulled himself closer to her. "I promise to trust you… I promise to pay more attention to your needs… I promise not to be vengeful… And I promise not to make you do anything against your will ever again, like I did when I chose to marry you."

"We're starting over, remember? I'm choosing you now," she said with a smile.

"You're choosing me…" he echoed in bewilderment.

"That's right. We should mark this as our starting over point. I like this point much better." she remarked, throwing her arms around his neck.

"Alright," he replied, hugging her around her waist. "I dub this our official starting over point. What should we do first?"

Aphrodite turned her head to the side, pretending to be deep in thought, then looked back at Hephaestus with a grin.

"Fix the door."


	23. Ares and Dionysus

Dionysus was sitting on a boulder in the woods near Mount Olympus, drinking wine, and watching some wood nymphs dance together in a clearing when he spied Ares coming toward him. His shoulders were slumped over, and he dragged his sword beside him on the ground. This man needed a drink, Dionysus thought.

"Why is Aphrodite so fickle?" Ares asked him when he was close enough to be heard. Aphrodite's request for Ares to leave had been echoing in his head all morning, undermining his confidence, and now, he wasn't sure she even wanted him anymore.

Dionysus chuckled. "You are all fickle," he replied. "Here, have some wine."

Ares snatched the bottle and slugged back some wine. After he swallowed, it sank in what Dionysus had been implying. "I am not fickle!" he retorted.

"Would you rather be predictable?" Dionysus jested through a grin.

"Never," he said with excessive resolve. "I would lose the element of surprise." This was strong wine, Ares noted to himself.

"So what did Aphrodite do?"

"She's suddenly decided she wants to be with Hephaestus," said Ares before gulping down some more wine.

"It can't be that sudden," said Dionysus through another chuckle. "She's been married to him for decades."

"But she's always loved me." Ares thumped his chest drunkenly for emphasis.

"And now she loves Hephaestus, I take it," continued Dionysus.

"Don't say that!" he shouted, grabbing Dionysus's shoulder. "She could never love Hephaestus. He is an awful man."

"Why, because of what he did to you with that net?"

"No, because of what he did to Harmonia. She didn't do anything to deserve that." The net had been an act of war – as much it had angered him, Ares had understood it. But cursing an innocent girl… An attack of that nature had no honor.

"Oh," replied Dionysus, taking the bottle from Ares's hand and drinking some of it himself. He had no idea what Ares was talking about, but he assumed Hephaestus must have done something pretty bad to her, and he went with it. "Yes, that was awful."

"How can she allow herself to love someone who did that to our daughter?"

Dionysus sighed and scratched his head. "Relationships are complicated. I've heard many a man tell his troubles to his wine, and believe me; they've said some pretty strange things. People have been forgiven for far worse."

Ares shook his head and grabbed the bottle back from Dionysus. "It's just not right."

Dionysus bit his cheek. "I don't know what to tell you."

Ares began to play with the bottle, moving it in little circles and watching the wine spin around inside it.

"Yesterday, she told me she was afraid of him. She told me she'd been having all these nightmares about him making all this stuff to hurt her with, and when I tried to get him to leave her alone, she told me to leave."

"Is that what the sword was for?" asked Dionysus, gesturing to the sword that Ares had cast aside on the ground like a piece of junk before he sat down.

"Yeah," replied Ares, dejected. He drank some more wine.

"Well, from what I know of Aphrodite, she doesn't care too much for violence. Maybe she just wanted you to leave because of your approach."

Ares hadn't thought about that. He passed the bottle to Dionysus and dropped his head into his hands. "Man, I really blew it, didn't I? But that's just who I am, though – violence is what I'm good at."

"And that's just who she is. She's not really fickle – she's just more compassionate than most people. Love is what she's good at." Dionysus sipped the last of the wine.

"I have to remember that. So you think she still has feelings for me?" he asked with a note of optimism.

"Feelings like that don't really go away in just one day," Dionysus declared with a smile. "So what are you doing here sitting with me when you could be out winning her back?"

"Thanks, Dionysus," said Ares.

"Go get her!" exclaimed Dionysus, patting him on the back. These gods and their problems, he thought, shaking his head. To him, they were all like children, coming back to the house to whine to their parents about what the other children had done during playtime. He vastly preferred the company of his nymphs... his half-naked, dancing, drunken nymphs... They were so much more... refined... He raised his empty glass to the nymphs in a mock toast. If it weren't for you, he thought, I would be stuck on Mount Olympus.


	24. The Exposure of Ares and Aphrodite

**The Exposure of Ares and Aphrodite**

_After their chance meeting in the field, Ares and Aphrodite found it increasingly difficult to stay away from each other. At first, they tried desperately to return to the way things had been and pretend the afternoon had never happened, but this soon became impossible, and they began to look for each other in the field of their original encounter. As time wore on, the frequency of these meetings increased, until inevitably, they found themselves spending all of their free time together._

_Now, instead of journeying to their field, they would go where-ever they could to avoid any prying eyes on Mount Olympus, often meaning they would spend the day in Aphrodite's own home while Hephaestus was away at his forge._

_They had never considered, however, the eyes of Helios._

_On this particular afternoon, Helios was beginning his descent across the sky in his golden chariot when a beam of sunlight happened to pierce through the curtain drawn over the window to Aphrodite and Hephaestus's bedroom. Since Helios saw whatever his light fell upon whether he wished to or not, he couldn't help but notice that Aphrodite was making love to someone in her bedroom - and that this someone was clearly not Hephaestus._

_Helios had seen many things in his travels across the sky - gods chasing after disinterested nymphs, people having to be turned into new species of flora for their own protection, Zeus turning himself into enough species of fauna to fill a menagerie - and in all of these instances, he had chosen to keep this information to himself. But this involved Hephaestus – the god who had built his palace for him and had made his chariot more comfortable for him... All without asking for anything in return... This was an exception. Now that Aphrodite's affair had reached such a heightened regularity, Helios finally believed he had found a way to repay Hephaestus for his kindness._

_As he was about to being his nightly trek through the ocean, he noticed Hephaestus on his way home from his forge and rode the last rays of the day to face him on the path.  
_

_"Helios," said Hephaestus, startled to see him. "What are you doing here?"_

_"I have something I need to tell you, Hephaestus, but I have very little time, so I must be brief."_

_The fact that Helios had detoured from his evening course just to tell him something made him worry. "Is something wrong? Has something happened to Eros?"_

_"No, Eros is fine. It is your wife that I have come to discuss. This afternoon, I saw her with another man."_

_Hephaestus knew Helios had a direct, blunt, almost alien way about him - a trait often exaggerated by the nature of his responsibilities - but even so, he could not believe what he had just heard to be true. "You must have mistaken her for someone else," he retorted, shaking his head._

_"I never mistake what I see," he stated nonchalantly. "She was in your bed with a man that was not you."_

_Hephaestus fell silent and tried to comprehend what he had just heard. At that moment, his world felt like it was collapsing in on itself, leaving nothing but a bubble of emptiness around the present._

_"Who was he…" he finally mumbled._

_"People usually are not pleased to hear such details."_

_"Tell me who he was, Helios!" shouted Hephaestus in a sudden rage._

_"I have said all I came to tell you; I must allow the night to come. Good evening, Hephaestus." With that, Helios bowed his head, returned to his carriage, and sank into the ocean._

_Had Aphrodite known the reason that Hephaestus was late to return home, she would not have been as happy as she was to spend a few more hours with Ares than usual that evening._

_And she definitely would not have allowed herself to sleep so soundly._

_

* * *

_

_The next day, Hephaestus left the house at his usual time, and Aphrodite, too cheerful from the night before to suspect anything, led Ares into the house at their usual time._

_Instead of going to his forge, as Aphrodite had assumed he had, Hephaestus had simply walked around the house, placed himself under the open window to their bedroom, and waited patiently for a sign of success._

_Luckily for Hephaestus and his aching leg, he didn't have to wait long. After less than an hour, he heard a scream.  
_

_His trap had worked. Eager to see his wife's lover, he hurried back to the bedroom. There, in his bed, were Aphrodite and Ares, naked and entwined around each other, tangled in his invisible net. He should have known, thought Hephaestus, and part of him was glad it was someone he had so little respect for already.  
_

_"What the..." shouted Ares when he couldn't find a way to free himself._

_Seeing Hephaestus standing triumphantly in the doorway, Aphrodite realized what was going on, and her entire body began to flush pink with embarrassment._

_Then, without a word, Hephaestus groped for the end of the net and, overcome with a desire for vengeance, he began tugging it out of the bedroom and into the street._

_"Hephaestus, no! Please! Don't!" Aphrodite shouted, but her pleas went unanswered._

_Ares started kicking and punching at the net, trying to make Hephaestus's hands slip, but Hephaestus's grip was so strong from his years at his forge that his efforts were useless. "Get us out of this net right now, or so help me-"_

_Hephaestus stopped in his tracks and glared down at Ares. "Or you'll what?" Hephaestus sneered._

_"Or when I am out of this net I will-"_

_"Ha! What makes you think I'm letting you out?" he crowed._

_"Hephaestus! Please let us go!" implored Aphrodite._

_"Now why would I want to do that?" Hephaestus jeered. "You were, after all, in my bed. Clearly, you wanted to be seen. Or should I say 'caught'?" Then, with a cackle, Hephaestus dragged them all the way to the square in the middle of Mount Olympus, and when he saw Hermes flitter by, he shouted for him to call all the gods to come see what he had caught in his net._

_Soon, the gods began trickling into the square, and once they saw what Hephaestus had done, they all began to laugh. At first, Hephaestus assumed they were merely snickering at Ares and Aphrodite, but as the crowd grew, it became apparent to him that the two were not the only source of amusement._

_"For a cuckold, he's mighty cocky," he heard Pan whisper to Dionysus through a chuckle._

_"What did he expect when he married Aphrodite," he heard Artemis whisper to Athena in a haughty tone of derision._

_Hearing the crowd begin to turn its attention to Hephaestus, Ares decided it was time he joined in._

_"You know, you were awfully confident when you dragged us here for someone who'd just found his wife in his bed with another man. You'd think he thought he'd won a contest!" Ares exclaimed._

_"Contest for biggest loser!" cried Phobos, catching on to what his father was doing._

_At this, the gods all burst into laughter, and as Hephaestus looked around, he could see that some of the gods were even starting to leave the square._

_In an attempt to change the subject, he turned to Zeus. "As you can plainly see, I have caught my wife committing adultery with this-", Hephaestus poked his cane at Ares with disgust, "thing. What is your verdict?"_

_"Verdict?" Zeus parroted as he cleared his throat to keep from laughing some more. "Well, I believe I pronounce them guilty!" he jested._

_"And what is your sentence?" Hephaestus continued._

_"Time served!" Zeus announced in a mocking tone and slammed down a thunderbolt before he started laughing again. "They are free to go!"_

_Hephaestus stared blankly at Zeus. Time served? Free to go?_

_Then, his gaze fell down to his wife, who had twisted herself in such a way as to hide most of her body from view behind Ares. In the village Hephaestus had spent his childhood, a woman caught committing adultery was legally required to divorce her husband, and though he had no desire to divorce Aphrodite, he at least expected that someone on Mount Olympus would do something other than giggle._

_"You have made my day, Hephaestus!" exclaimed Zeus, ignoring Hephaestus's obvious confusion. "There hasn't been anything this entertaining here in a long time!" Looking back down to Ares and Aphrodite, he started laughing even harder, slapping his knee and doubling over, all the while knocking over enough thunderbolts to throw anyone living below into a panic. "You can let them go now."_

_"You're not going to do anything to them?" Hephaestus asked, meekly._

_"I think they've been through enough today, don't you?"_

_Hephaestus didn't know what to say. Mount Olympus had never made much sense to him, and now, with almost the entire pantheon guffawing around him over something he no longer found even remotely funny, he felt like was stuck in a madhouse._

_Gingerly, he felt around for the edge of the net, and with one swift but disappointed motion, he set them free._

_Ares stood up as confidently as if he were fully clothed and flashed Hephaestus a sly grin. Thinking he'd had the last laugh, and believing he'd won the battle of the net, he felt he had nothing to be embarrassed about and wanted nothing more than to rub his victory in Hephaestus's face._

_Aphrodite on the other hand, was feeling something between seething anger and agonizing shame. Hiding what she could with her arms, she hurried away from the square - she respected her body too much for it to be degraded this way, and she was still shocked that her seemingly mild-mannered husband would do something so deplorable to her. As far as she was concerned at that moment, she would have been happy if Hephaestus had never come back to Mount Olympus at all.  
_

_As Hephaestus watched her escape, he could feel the rush of anger beginning to seep away and a stabbing heartache set in. Even after all of this - catching his wife with her former lover and current neighbor and watching her curling up to him with such comfort and familiarity - Hephaestus still loved her. And he hated himself for it._

_He never wanted to go through anything like this again, he thought._

_The thirst for vengeance he'd inherited from his unique conception flooded his mind once more. Perhaps, he wondered, he could craft something that would teach his straying wife a lesson…_


	25. Aphrodite and Hephaestus III

Aphrodite was lounging on the couch and reading a poem while she waited for Hephaestus when she heard the front door slam.

"It's fixed!" yelled Hephaestus, and he hurried back into the parlor toward Aphrodite. "What should we do now?"

"I don't know. What would you like to do?"

"Anything you want – you decide."

She was starting to notice that when Hephaestus was happy, he took on an almost boyish character. Ares would do the same thing, but in a more mischievous, less innocent sort of way – this was something she would have to learn to appreciate, she thought.

"Usually, you go to your forge about now, so I don't really know what to suggest. I'm not used to being able to spend the day with you."

"Well, that's something I need to fix, too," he replied, well aware that he needed to spend a little less time at his forge if he wanted his marriage to work. "What do you usually do during the day?"

I don't think you want to know, she thought. "Well… I go to earth sometimes…"

"That's a good start! What do you do there?"

Again, she thought, I don't think you want to know. "I answer prayers and help people with their love lives."

"I guess that's not really something we can do together…" he said, losing a little steam. "There has to be some activity we both like."

Aphrodite took a deep breath. She was more accustomed to just doing whatever came naturally - the only time she ever brainstormed an activity this way was when she wanted to seduce someone, and while they were headed in a good direction, they had not reached that arena yet. This was starting to feel awkward. "Perhaps we shouldn't force it," she said. "It could ruin what we have right now."

"And what is that?" asked Hephaestus, moving closer to her. He wanted to hear her say it again.

Aphrodite paused – she didn't really know. Not wanting to try to come up with some flimsy answer, she decided to lean in and kiss him instead.

"That was very well put," said Hephaestus, almost glowing. "You know, we could go away together – to an island, like you said. You could show me where you were born."

It occurred to Aphrodite that she had never revisited the cove where she had emerged from the sea– the thought of seeing it again intrigued her. "That's a wonderful idea."

"And afterwards, I could show you the village where I grew up, and maybe even the cave where I learned to be blacksmith. What do you think?" he offered, taking her hand.

She imagined all the dingy little villages she had visited by the sea during her reign as a goddess, and she found the idea of having to visit another one mildly disgusting. But, if she was going to get to visit where she was born, then he should get to visit where he grew up, she thought. Besides, such a trip would help her get to know her husband, and for all she knew, she could end up being pleasantly surprised by the village. "I think that sounds splendid," she said. "When should we go?"

"How about now? What better way to celebrate starting over than going on a vacation?" Hephaestus's countenance picked up again, and he sported a smile so wide that Aphrodite couldn't say no.

"Now is perfect," she said, throwing her arms around him again. Leaving Mount Olympus for any reason sounded perfect to her right then, let alone to go on vacation.

"You were born by Cyprus, right?"

"Yes, I was. When did I tell you that?"

"Everyone in Greece knows it – I heard it growing up. Why don't we go there first, and then go to my village on the way home?" Hephaestus wanted to be able to give the nymphs that had raised him ample notice that they were coming. Knowing Thetis, who he still thought of as his real mother, she would not appreciate a surprise visit from Aphrodite.

Aphrodite slid off the couch. "Then I'll go get ready."

The more he thought about it, the more it occurred to him that any notice, no matter how long, might not be enough for Thetis to accept that Aphrodite was going to be coming with him. He scrawled a quick note and put it by the door somewhere Hermes would be able to pick it up. The trip to Cyprus would have to be perfect, he thought, or the trip to his village had the potential to ruin everything.

Hephaestus shook his head, and told himself he worried too much. Thetis wouldn't want to hurt his marriage out of spite – not even Hera had tried anything like that, and she abhorred Aphrodite.

Yes, thought Hephaestus, it will be good to get away from Mount Olympus.


	26. Hera and Zeus

Hera knew her own faults - one of the more egregious, in her eyes, being that she had fallen in love with Zeus. She had known of his appetite - she had even watched him flirt with other women while they were engaged. Had she acted on any of this information, she could have saved herself from decades of heartache.

But she had loved him, so she had chosen to look the other way.

And what was worse, she loved him still.

Looking back, her attempts to re-seduce her husband during the Trojan War had been laughable at best, and with every new metamorphosis of himself as he tried to escape her notice, Zeus made her feel even more like a fool.

At least she had her followers, she would tell herself. There were days when she felt that she needed their humble offerings more than her devotees felt the need to make them, and when their prayers were answered, their happiness was more comforting to her than anything her husband had ever done in his attempts to quell her jealous thoughts. As a result, love itself had never become her enemy.

Instead, it had become lust.

If her husband were only able to control himself, she thought, then the two of them could have a proper, fulfilling marriage. But his taste for young women bordered on addiction, and not even Hera, the supposed embodiment of the ideal wife, could stop him. The problem, she'd thus concluded, had never been her - the problem had always been Zeus's inability to keep his robe on.

Therefore, whether Hera was fully aware of the reason behind this or not, Aphrodite had become the perfect scapegoat for her anger. Aphrodite's affairs were legendary – Ares, Adonis, Hermes, Dionysus, Anchises... the list went on. Her son may not have been aware of all these men, but Hera, out of her hatred for everything Aphrodite stood for, took special care in making Aphrodite's drifting eye her business, hoping that one day she could use this information against her.

For now, however, she waited. In the words of one of her more distant admirers, one must hasten slowly. She must remember this, she thought.

As Hera ruminated on these things, Zeus returned home for lunch and plopped down in a chair.

"My, this has been a long day already, and the day has barely even begun," he stated, kicking off his sandals.

"Perhaps Helios is traveling more slowly this morning," Hera casually remarked.

Always one to find his wife's deceptively cold demeanor entertaining, he chuckled. "Has your morning been long as well?"

"It has been its usual length – no more, no less." She pulled open a scroll, hoping Zeus would find something else to do with his free time – she was not in the mood to be around him at the moment.

"Oh? And what have you been up to this morning?"

"I have been pondering the sexual appetite of the water droplet," she replied without looking up from her scroll.

"The water droplet?" Zeus let out another laugh. "That doesn't even make any sense. Is that some kind of riddle?"

"It is puzzling, isn't it? One would think a water droplet would be quite… unsatisfying."

Hera is in a funny mood this morning, thought Zeus, and he decided to humor her. "I don't know – droplets seem to find each other and form large bodies of water together all the time. Maybe they are very easy to satisfy."

"I suppose that could be true… But they find many things quite unlike themselves in the process... When it rains, for example, they seem happy enough to fall on anything." Hera slowly rolled her scroll open a little more.

This is a strange conversation, he thought. She's clearly been reading too many scrolls of philosophy. "Are you calling raindrops selfish? But without rain, there would be no life on earth!" He wondered where all of this was going.

"I'm saying they seem able to satisfy themselves on anything they touch, whether the other party is able to take pleasure from the experience or not. I mean, a full grown woman standing in the rain, for example – how could that even be remotely pleasurable for her?"

Zeus could think of a few reasons that could be pleasurable for the droplet, but he held his tongue. "Maybe if it got a few other droplets to help him, and they all worked together… How did you even get on this subject, anyway?"

"Oh, you know how the mind can wander." She should have said a golden water droplet – maybe then he would have caught on to her meaning, but she was partly glad he hadn't understood her. Some days she wished the ideal Greek wife was the kind of woman that could charge at her husband with a club.

Zeus started laughing again. "I think you need some fresh air. I bet there are some devotees you can help with their marriages, or better yet, some naysayers you can punish. That's what I would do."

"That would be a little hypocritical, don't you think?" she asked, dropping her scroll in her lap.

Walked right into that one, he thought. "I'm not punishing Aphrodite, Hera."

"You just said that's what you would do," she said, pleased that he'd been the one to bring it up again and not her.

"To a human being, maybe, but not to a goddess – that is a completely different situation."

"How so, exactly?"

Zeus took a moment to think – when his wife had her mind on something, nothing could stand in her way. He needed to stand strong. "It could go against their responsibilities…"

"Oh, really?" Hera asked, sarcastically.

"It could. Take Aphrodite – she's the goddess of sexual desire, right? So, it would be wrong to punish her for following her own desires, or for that matter exciting such desires in others. It would be like punishing Poseidon for making the tide come in."

"Nice try, but I don't think Aphrodite's desires are a necessary part of the balance of nature," she retorted.

"It's the principle of the thing," he stated, hoping in vain that it would end the conversation.

"So, by that logic, if her desires are leading her to other men, then her having to be married would go against her responsibilities, wouldn't you say?" Hera sat back in her chair, proud of the point she had made.

Zeus could feel her pushing him into a corner, but he refused to reconsider his decision. He had his reasons, and she should be content with them. "She needs to be married, Hera. You remember how it was when all the gods were fighting over her– as long as I am ruling Mount Olympus, I will have peace."

"But all the gods have consorts now – except for Ares, of course, but she's already with him all the time as it is, so that wouldn't really matter. You have nothing to be afraid of anymore."

Zeus had to admit that what Hera was saying had some truth to it. He could also tell that if he didn't offer her anything now, this conversation would never end. "Alright, I'll say it – you have a point. I shouldn't be leery of letting Aphrodite be single again. I still don't like the idea of handing out divorce as a punishment, though - if I made everyone on Mount Olympus who's cheated on their spouses get a divorce then no one would be married anymore. I can, however, promise you this - if either of them come and ask me for a divorce, I'll give it to them. What do you say to that?"

Hera pondered over what this could mean. It definitely had potential, she thought. "I can deal with that," she finally said, and picked up her scroll again.

Her quick complacency made Zeus nervous. "But no tricking them into seeing me - it has to be genuine."

Oh, that won't be a problem, she thought.


	27. Aphrodite and Hephaestus IV

Aphrodite rested her head so she could watch the water lapping the side of the ship.

"How long will it be until we get there?" she asked.

Hephaestus chuckled as he untied the rigging. "I'm not sure, my sweet. Though, what is that saying... The journey is the destination."

Aphrodite sighed and grazed a few fingers over the surface of the water. That probably meant the journey would be long, she thought. Then all of a sudden, she felt his hands on her shoulders.

"It won't be too long," Hephaestus whispered into her ear. Then, with a kiss on the cheek, he went back to setting everything up for their departure.

She smiled and turned to watch him. "Do you need any help with anything?"

"No, my love; the ship is doing most of it for me. Thank you, though."

My love…

How could he, after everything that had happened between them, still love her? If she were him, she would have left herself a long time ago. "Love," she sighed under her breath.

It was all so silly, she thought. There she had been, on a quest for love, and all that time love had been waiting for her at home, reading its paper and eating ambrosia out of little glass bowls. Watching the muscles in his arms as he pulled up the anchor, his skin glistening in the sun, she began to think that she could see herself falling in love with him. Every day, he seemed to grow gentler, sweeter, more romantic…

But this was still Hephaestus, said a voice inside her. This was still the man that ignored you for decades… that had gone weeks at time without seeing her when working on something important in his forge… that could go from cool and unfeeling to furious and unfeeling in a matter of seconds… It had been those beautiful arms that had dragged her around with Ares for everyone to see…

Ares…

No, she corrected herself. They were was starting over. Hephaestus had promised never to do anything like that again, and she had promised to be faithful to him in return. No more jealous rages; and certainly no more Ares. She couldn't think about Ares that way anymore - that would be a habit she would have to learn to break, she decided. However hard it would be…

She could feel the ship begin to let go from the pier and set off into the open sea.

This would be the start of a new adventure, she imagined. A life without Ares… A life with Hephaestus….

She watched him as he oriented the sail so it could catch the best breeze, his shoulders rippling as he pulled the ropes.

Could she have fallen in love with Ares? Things had become so stale between them, she thought, so predictable – but so had her relationship with Hephaestus. The difference was, though, that Ares never seemed to care that she went home to another man every night. He had been getting exactly what he wanted, and he was happy. Thinking of all this reminded her of the day she had come to ask him what he thought about love - how he had been trying not to seem nervous, and knowing him, how uncomfortable he had probably been...

And he never had said that he loved her…

Hephaestus paused to wipe some sweat from his brow. Seeing that Aphrodite was watching him, he smiled back to her. "I'm almost done."

"Are you sure you don't want me to help?" she offered.

"I only have a couple more things to do, and then this ship will sail herself. You just relax, love. We'll be on our way soon."

But Hephaestus… the last couple of days, he'd told her he loved her in millions of ways. For that alone, she wanted more than anything to be able to love him in return. Life was too long to never give him a chance, she thought. For all she knew, he could be the love of her existence, and she'd never even known it. If she put herself in the right frame of mind, and chose to love him, that uncontrollable love would follow right behind.

Being with him this way, however, was beginning to have a strange effect on her, as if her time with this new Hephaestus were reshaping her into someone else. It was making her very essence shift within her, and it was pulling her away from things she had always wanted, and wanted still. Her thoughts still drifted to Ares – this she couldn't deny, though she would never tell Hephaestus. She simply wouldn't allow herself to indulge in those feelings, she thought. She was with Hephaestus now… because… because…

She didn't even know. She just knew she wanted to go on this trip with him, and get to know this familiar stranger she was watching pulling those ropes a little more. After all, love for love's sake, she pondered, was still love... right?

Hephaestus brushed his hands together. "All done!" he exclaimed, and placing his hands squarely on his hips, he looked out over the horizon.

Aphrodite walked toward him and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Are you sure you want to start over with me?" she murmured, resting her chin on his shoulder.

"Positive," he replied, closing his eyes and moving his hands to rest over hers. "What about you… are you sure you want to start over with me?"

"Positive." As she spoke, she felt like it wasn't just her relationship with Hephaestus was starting over - her whole life was starting over as well... and starting over again and again every minute...

Hephaestus took a deep breath, as if he were trying to take in as much of the moment as he possibly could. "It shouldn't be too long before we get to Cyprus."

"Let it take as long as it needs to," she said, pulling him around to face her so she could kiss him. "Let it take forever."


	28. Eros and Ares

Eros was interrupted from his nap at the sound of someone banging on his door. Psyche was still asleep beside him, so he carefully slid out of bed, put his robe on, and quietly made his way downstairs. As he did this, he was reminded of the first nights he'd spent with his wife, and he sighed with satisfaction. How afraid he'd been back then that she wouldn't love him for who really he was, he thought. And how much of a fool he'd been…

This reverie abruptly ended, however, when he saw the face of his father once he opened the door.

"What," Eros stated.

"Where is Aphrodite?" Ares barked. He had wanted to remind Aphrodite of the fate of their daughter, Harmonia, in an attempt to make her overly compassionate nature work in his favor, but neither Aphrodite nor Hephaestus had been home.

"How should I know?" he replied, and was about to shut the door again when Ares shoved his foot in the way.

"Of course you know - you two are always chattering on about something." Ares peered down at his son in a manner that resembled a private investigator who'd read too many stories.

"…chattering?" Eros was not awake enough to deal with this.

"She tells you everything. Admit it – you know where she is!" he shouted, dramatically leaned his face at Eros, who instinctively backed away.

"She does not, as you put it, tell me everything – she is thankfully her own person. Now please leave before you wake my wife with your insanity."

Ares slumped a little, and his voice took on a more sheepish tone. "You really don't know where she is?"

"No."

"Why would she go somewhere and not tell you?" Hephaestus must have taken her somewhere, he theorized. He must have known that I'd come back for her again.

"Because she knows that I don't care. She's probably just out visiting one of her temples or something." Eros floated closer to the door, trying to suggest to Ares that it was time for him to go.

"But what if something's happened to her?"

"She's immortal, Ares. I think she can take care of herself."

"But Hephaestus could've trapped her somewhere… and-"

"Stop working yourself into a frenzy, Ares. She's fine." That net must have had a big effect on him, thought Eros. As he tried to reassure him, though, Eros began wondering if Ares might have a point. Hephaestus could do some nasty things when he wanted revenge, and if Aphrodite's plot had backfired… Going in a matter of hours from thinking someone is in love with you to finding out someone wants to leave you would make even the mildest person do something crazy.

"You're probably right," replied Ares, visibly calmer. "I'm just so used to seeing her every day, and… wait… why is your face crinkling up like that?"

"What do you mean crinkling up? Was it crinkling up?"

"You think something's happened to her, don't' you?" Ares cocked his head to the side as he tried to assess what Eros was hiding from him.

"No, I don't! Why would I think that?"

Ares stomped his foot on the ground in frustration. If Eros was worried, then he knew something was definitely wrong. "This is your mother, Eros! If you think she's in trouble, then you need to tell me what you know!"

Eros back away again, nervous this time. Ares was making him question everything he'd been experiencing the last couple of days. "I don't know anything… it's just that yesterday, she told me she wanted to divorce him… She was asking my advice on how to go about it and everything … She seemed so serious – she wanted me to help her plan how she would do it, but-"

"She wants to divorce him?" Oh Aphrodite, thought Ares. He wondered if her love for him had reawakened just as his had for her, and he wanted nothing more than to take her away from Hephaestus forever.

"That's what she told me. But then when I went to pick up some arrows, Hephaestus said that she had blurted out to Hera that she's in love with him… and that was only a few hours after I'd seen her."

"She told me about that. You think it was part of her plan?

"I didn't think so at first, but now I'm not so sure…" Images of Hephaestus torturing Aphrodite with macabre inventions began flooding Eros's mind.

Seized by his emotions, Ares lunged at Eros and grabbed the collar of his robe in his fist. "Where would he take her?"

"I don't know. His forge?"

"No…" Ares cast his head to the side. The key to conquering your enemy was to get inside his head, he thought, and Hephaestus must know that he'd be after him eventually. "He knows that would be the first place anyone would look. It's too obvious..."

"But he'd need somewhere to hide her…" Eros retorted, still picturing Hephaestus pulling tools off the walls of his cave to hurt his mother.

"Is there anywhere he would take her, then? Maybe even willingly? "

That was it… "His other forge!" Eros exclaimed. "The one he made Hera's throne in! Think about it… That throne is what got him married to Aphrodite to begin with!"

Ares's eyes grew wide with horror. Of course that's where he took her, he thought – no one would ever think to look for them there… "And that's where he broke my sword! He knows I'm going to look for him, and he thinks he'll be able to finish me off there!"

Eros, like most everyone on Mount Olympus, both greatly admired and deeply feared Hephaestus. Most of the time, he was kind and extremely generous, offering to make palaces for everyone and fashioning improvements to whatever anyone used on a regular basis, and, for the most part, he was slow to anger. But when he did get angry…

It was Hephaestus's anger that the deities of Mount Olympus feared more than anything – even the wrath of Zeus. Hephaestus had accrued a reputation for using everything in his power to get even, even though most of these reported exploits had never even happened.

This was inconsequential, however, because it is the unknown that almost everyone fears most, and between his talent for craftsmanship and his infamous habit for vengeance, the gods never entirely knew what Hephaestus was truly capable of doing.

"Who knows what he has in there?" speculated Eros, afraid for his mother.

Ares let go of Eros's robe. He could have anything in there, he thought. "Come with me. He won't be expecting you."

"What? Are you joking?" cried Eros, now afraid for himself.

"All you'll need to do is shoot arrows at him – you can be way off in the distance. There's no way Hephaestus can shoot anything as far as you can." Ares felt as if he were cheering up a company of troops before a battle.

"But… what about Psyche?" Eros tried to keep from shaking.

"She'll be safe here. You should be more concerned about your mother right now."

Eros knew Ares was right, but that didn't make him any more eager to face whatever contraptions Hephaestus had in store for him. "But I've only ever shot people so they can fall in love – I don't have any experience in combat… What if I freeze up?"

Ares placed his hand on Eros's shoulder. "You're my son, too, Eros. You will be fine."

Eros took a deep breath. The future comes whether you want it to or not, he thought. "Ok, let me tell Psyche first, and I'll go with you."

"You might also want to change clothes," added Ares.

"Yeah," replied Eros, shaking his head in an attempt to make himself focus. "That, too."


	29. Aphrodite and Hephaestus V

Hephaestus stretched out on the deck and closed his eyes. He imagined himself becoming one with the boat, trying to concentrate on the way it lilted in the waves.

He loved being able to spend so much time with Aphrodite, especially now that she seemed to want to spend time with him, but he had become so used to spending most of his days alone that the constant social interaction had become exhausting. It still didn't make sense to him why Aphrodite was as eager as he was to start over, and, frightened making some kind of mistake that would change her mind, he had overloaded his brain trying to make everything perfect.

When she spoke, even just to make some offhand remark about beauty of the waves or a bird flying by, he would try to craft the perfect response. When he thought that she looked bored, he would try to craft the perfect way to distract her. Even when she kissed him, he would try to craft the perfect kiss in return. And it was only when she fell asleep in a lounge chair hours later that he was able to take a break.

He had never worked so hard to create something in his entire life.

Hephaestus's mind had turned to mush from all his effort. Now, he let himself go, and he visualized his spirit melting into the ship.

He could feel the boards joined together within him, the water brushing against him and buoying him to the surface, and the wind pushing him toward Cyprus. The boat didn't have to do anything – it just had to be. It wanted for nothing.

A ship never felt lonely, he thought. It always had the sea and the wind. And all a ship ever needed was the occasional repair.

Hephaestus sighed. That's what he needed – repair.

He turned his head and watched Aphrodite as she slept. Without doubt, he knew he loved her, but after everything she had done, he didn't know why. She had spent years practically ignoring him, even going as far as to bring other men into their bed – his bed. For some reason, that had become his bed when they decided to sleep in separate rooms. His only company as he slept for the last few decades had been the shadows of his wife's lovers.

But then… what he had done in revenge… the necklace he had tinkered with and given to Harmonia… and that robe... If Aphrodite ever found out what he had done, she would never want to see him again.

Yes, after that, she could sleep with whomever she wanted to until the end of time, and they would still be even. He sighed. Things could be worse, he thought - at least Harmonia didn't have those things anymore... and at least she never told her mother about them...

Just thinking about what Harmonia must have gone through made his heart grow so heavy he barely had the energy to move. Someday he would have to tell Aphrodite, but not now… not while everything between them was so fragile…

He closed his eyes and tried to melt into the ship again, escaping into the rocking motion over the waves.

How he missed swimming, he thought. When he was little, he would play in the surf all the time with Thetis and the other sea nymphs. When he swam, he could forget about his feet. On land, he had never been able to run, but in the water, he could swim faster than any of the nymph-children. In the water, he could do anything he wanted; in the water, he was free.

As he thought about his childhood, he realized he hadn't felt that free in a long time – not since he left home and came to Mount Olympus. But he had been married, and to Aphrodite, the most beautiful woman on earth… How had he never felt that free again?

And now, Aphrodite, the woman every man in Greece lusted after, the woman he had been in love with for so long, wanted to be with him, only him… Why did he not feel that free now?

"Hephaestus?" he heard Aphrodite mumble half-asleep. "Where did you go?"

Hephaestus rose from where he had been laying on the deck and went to her side. "I'm right here, my love."

"I dreamed you…" As she looked into his face, so grave with concern, she opened her eyes a little more and smiled. "But that doesn't matter. Hephaestus, this is going to sound strange, but I've missed you." She groggily tucked a lock of his hair out of his face.

"I've just been over there on the deck," he laughed. "I couldn't have gone very far."

"No, I mean… It's just that we've never spent time together like this… And… I guess saying that I missed you isn't right... Since we've never been together like this before… But I just couldn't think of a better way to put it."

After quick consideration, Hephaestus caressed the side of her face. "I can't either. I've missed you, too."

Hephaestus was just about to lean in and kiss her when he spotted a shadow on the horizon.

"We're here."


	30. Part IV: Reunions

"Row faster!" shouted Ares.

"Why do we have to row, again? Don't Poseidon's ships all sail themselves?" Eros grunted between strokes.

"Because we need to get there as fast as we can! We know Hephaestus probably isn't rowing his ship, so if we row, we should be able to catch up with him," Ares stated, gallantly watching the open sea.

"Then why aren't YOU rowing?" Eros asked, emphatically dropping the oars in his lap.

Ares turned and glared down at his son. "Because I'm navigating! ROW!"

Eros rolled his eyes. This was going to fun trip, he thought, and he took up the oar again.

* * *

"Your majesty, Aphrodite and Hephaestus are not at home," said Hermes as he floated into Hera's parlor.

"Where are they?" asked Hera.

"Their servants claim that they are away on holiday," he replied. Aphrodite had never agreed to go away with him on holiday, so he found this hard to believe.

"On holiday where?" How could she tamper with their marriage if they were nowhere to be found?

"That, they didn't say."

"Did you ask?" continued Hera, strolling up to Hermes in a way that was almost threatening.

"Yes, your majesty. They refused to tell me." Of course he asked, thought Hermes. He wasn't an idiot.

"Then get them to tell you," she commanded him, her face too close to his for comfort, and her eyes smoldering with frustration.

"I am only a messenger, your majesty," he coolly responded. "Might I suggest – "

"UGH!" Hera shouted. "You are the god of tricking people! You're even the god of travelers, for goodness sake! Do whatever it is that you do, and find out where they are! I don't care what you have to do, or who you have to get to do it! Just do it!"

"If it pleases your majesty," said Hermes, lowering his voice even more in an attempt to calm Hera down. "I could ask Poseidon if he knows where they are. If they were traveling by land, then I would have known, as you have said."

"Yes…" Hera backed away from Hermes and tried to regain her composure. "That will be fine… You may go."

* * *

"Hello!" shouted Poseidon when he saw Hermes coming toward him. He'd taken a break from riding his chariot around the sea to let his horse play a little on the beach. As the horses chased each other up and down the shoreline, he'd been resting at the water's edge, letting the tide tickle his toes as it came in. "Does someone want to see me at Mount Olympus?"

"No, not today - Hera sent me to ask you if you've seen Hephaestus or Aphrodite lately." Hermes wished he didn't have to go back and forth for assignments like these, but then again, it was probably best for all Olympus that the gods had a go between in situations like these.

"Well, as a matter of fact, I have," said Poseidon, rising to his feet. "Hephaestus borrowed one of my ships so he could take Aphrodite some kind of romantic getaway. What business does Hera have with him? Should I go tell them to turn around?"

"No, that won't be necessary." So they were going on a holiday. How sickeningly charming, thought Hermes. "Do you know where they are going?"

Hephaestus had asked Poseidon how to set the ship on its course, and in doing so, had told him exactly where he was planning on going. Not wanting to get involved in any drama on Mount Olympus, Poseidon decided to tell Hermes everything he knew.

"…The nymphs will be glad to see him again, I think," added Poseidon. "They ask me about him all the time. Though, I don't know what he's thinking taking Aphrodite to see Thetis. Did you know she still wears a ribbon around her ankle for Achilles?"

"No, I didn't know that. Thank you, Poseidon, for all of your help. You've really made my job a lot easier." One of the horses trotted past Hermes and bowed its head to Poseidon so it could be petted.

"No problem – I can't imagine what it must be like doing what you do," he said, rubbing the horse on its nose.

"Everyone has their duties," Hermes said with a sigh, and he flew off into the horizon back to Mount Olympus.

* * *

**_Happy Chapter 30, everyone!_**

**_It has been so much fun doing this challenge, and I am so grateful to all of the What is Love fans out there!_**

**_Asukai101 - I'd love to help you out! I tried to message you back, but I guess you have messages blocked. I'm so glad you're enjoying the story, though!_**

**_Thanks to everyone who's reviewed/sent messages, especially Fostersb! All of your kind reviews have brightened my summer :)_**

**_See you again after another ten chapters! And, as always, keep reading! :)  
_**


	31. Aphrodite and Hephaestus VI

It was so ugly, thought Aphrodite.

The cove was so small, and seaweed had washed up all over the shore. The whole place looked so filthy and sad that she had a strong urge to run back on the ship and sail somewhere else.

But this was it. This was where she had been born. She recognized it too much to hope otherwise.

Over there was the spot where she'd first stepped out of her shell. She'd squished her toes into the gleaming white sand, and the feeling had made her giggle. She'd been so nervous about leaving her shell – she'd spent her entire life inside it alone, and here were all these people on shore staring at her and beckoning for her to come toward them. She hadn't recognized any of them, and all of the people had such a strange look in their eyes. But eventually, the shell drifted onto the shore and got stuck, and she had to leave her shell to push it back out to sea. The shell had been smooth and hard under her feet, but the sand was so rough and soft - she'd never experienced this kind of feeling before. At that moment, she'd figured that the shore must have many other marvelous sensations, and she wanted to feel them all, so she'd decided to push her shell out to sea without her.

But now, the sand was a dirty, muddy color, and littered with debris. When she took her sandals off and touched it with her toe, it felt so slimy and disgusting.

Over there was the rock that her shell had hit as she'd come ashore. In her memory, it was a golden brown that glistened in the sun as sea foam from the tide teased its edges. She had thought the rock and the sea must have been in love, and the first thing she had done when she left her shell was to climb on top of it and whisper hello to them.

But now the rock was covered with bracken and moss. And the sea foam lapping against its side smelled like dead fish and had driftwood floating in it.

The way it was now, if this had been the first place she'd landed, she would have had the people on shore push her shell out to sea, and she would never have left it at all.

"This place is beautiful," said Hephaestus under his breath. "I wish I could have seen you…" His voice drifted off, catching the scent of the breeze. To him, he could smell the sea better here than he could in the middle of the ocean, and he hurried into the surf so the smell could surround him.

"The water is so clear here," he said with amazement as treaded around. "You can see straight to the bottom."

"Yeah," said Aphrodite after turning around to look at the sea. "I guess you can."

"And all the colors here," he continued. "Just look at the rocks… The greens, the blues, the browns… It's like the sea itself is blooming…"

She looked over her shoulder at the rock she'd loved when she was born. Hephaestus was right – it was so colorful now – but still she couldn't see what Hephaestus could see. To her, the cove was too overgrown, too shabby, and too different for her to see anything beautiful – she was too blinded by what had changed to see anything else.

"There used to be flowers over there," she told him, waving to a pile of logs a short distance away. "I would make garlands and string them into people's hair."

"I'm sure they loved that," replied Hephaestus with deep sincerity. If only Thetis had taken him to grow up here, he thought.

Aphrodite couldn't take it anymore. She had loved this cove her entire life, and seeing it in such a state of disrepair made her sick to her stomach.

"I'm going to take a nap," she told him as she went back to the ship.

"Are you OK?"

"I'm just tired," she replied. "Enjoy the water."

She had been so excited to come here, he thought. Had he done something wrong?

Worried, he followed Aphrodite back onto the ship, telling her he was feeling a little tired himself, and he held her in his arms as she fell asleep.


	32. Eros and Ares II

"How... much... longer...", Eros asked between strokes.

"It's not much farther... I think" answered Ares, his voice trailing off as he spoke.

"You think?" Eros threw down the oars. "Here's what I think - it's your turn to row."

"I can't row! I'm navigating!" Ares was offended by the very thought of hard labor, much less being asked to perform it by his own son.

"You've clearly gotten us lost. If you hadn't told me to make so many turns, we'd be in Egypt by now. My turn to navigate." Eros scooted back in his seat and stretched his legs.

"Excuse me," he retorted. "you don't even know where we're going! How do you expect to lead us there?" This is what happens when children are encouraged to be creative, Ares thought. Insubordinate boy... He wouldn't last a day in the army...

"You could tell me where it is," Eros replied, "I've probably been there before." He carefully stood from his seat and gestured toward the oars.

"Sit down, Eros. We're on the right track; we just have to make sure Hephaestus doesn't have anyone following us."

"You have to be kidding me..." said Eros.

"Hephaestus is a clever man, Eros," Ares added with fatherly sincerity.

My father is a mad man, thought Eros. I am stuck on a row boat with a mad man... How did I get to this point in my life? "If Hephaestus had anyone following us, which I highly doubt he does, they could have just overheard you talking about that forge. I'm sure the whole sea knows where we're going by now."

"That... isn't necessarily true..." muttered Ares as it dawned on him that his son might be right. "Now sit down before you flip us over."

Eros looked directly into his father's eyes. "Not until you tell me where we're going."

How cute, thought Ares as he looked back at his son. "Are you seriously trying to win a battle against me?"

"I'm perfectly willing to stand here all day. Frankly, I think it would be a better use of my time, anyway," Eros stated with his signature grin.

Ares raised his eyebrows. As if that grin was going to work on him... Where did Eros think he'd inherited it?

This continued for a few minutes - the two men staring at each-other, the rowboat bobbing in the waves.

"As entertaining as this has been," Ares finally said, "I'm getting bored. This trip has been a nice bonding experience for the two of us, though, don't you think."

"It's been swell," spat Eros.

Ares leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. "As long as we aren't going anywhere, why don't we have a nice father-son chat. Tell me, Eros, how is your wife?"

His stomach fell... Psyche... It had been weeks since he'd seen her... The longest he had been away from her since they had met... He already thought of her every moment of the day, but to hear mention of her... That was truly a low blow. "She..." He couldn't bare to finish his sentence. To speak of her would make his pain even worse. Accepting defeat, he sighed and sat back down, whispering a prayer to his wife as he did so.

"East..." Ares commanded.

Eros took up the oars with a defiant flair. "You're rowing on the way back."


	33. The Discovery of Truth

**_The Discovery of Truth_**

_Despite Greek custom in such situations, and to the dismay of Aphrodite, Hephaestus had not called for a divorce, and as her hand was given by Zeus's command, Aphrodite had no choice in the matter. What perfect vengeance, she thought, to see him every morning asleep beside her. I am caught forever._

_This was not Hephaestus' design, however. In fact, he had been afraid for her, convincing himself that if he had thrown her out of their marriage, it would have brought shame upon her and her followers. No husband on Mount Olympus had ever divorced his own wife, he thought - who knows what would have become of her.,,_

_"It is for her own good", he would say to himself when he awoke to an empty house in the mornings. It had become his mantra, as he tried to assure himself that his motivations had been altruistic. He would repeat the phrase until he had sufficiently suppressed his doubts - such as when his thoughts would remind him that if this were indeed true, he would not miss Aphrodite so much; he would not think back on the early days of their marriage, romanticizing them to perfection; and he would not blame himself for what she had done..._

_But what did it matter... She was never home. When he awoke, she was already gone for the day, and when he returned from his forge for the night, she was already asleep. She had not even spoken to him since... the incident... and that had occurred a few months ago. Aphrodite had effectively created a routine for herself where she never had to acknowledge his existence... _

_Except, of course, in the mornings..._

_Hephaestus had tried to stay up in bed, waiting for her to get up so he could "coincidentally" wake up as well, but his work had grown so demanding that he barely had the energy to stir while he slept, much less pretend to be asleep all night. _

_He wondered what crossed her mind when she saw him, but if even he were ever able to see her, he would never have dared to ask._

_Sometimes during these reveries, he would catch a glimpse of Eros playing in the yard._

_At least he had his son..._

* * *

_One morning, while Aphrodite was on her way to fulfill the prayers of some of her devotees, she could see Hermes ahead of her blocking the path._

_"I have a message for you," he calmly stated as Aphrodite tried to walk around him._

_"If Zeus wants to see me, he will have to wait until I am finished with my duties for the day." The stress of trying to creep around her husband in the mornings always started her days on a bad note, and the only thing that could fix it was for her to visit her followers._

_"The message is from Ares." _

_Aphrodite stopped in her tracks. She had not seen him since... the incident... Trying to collect herself, she straightened her posture and turned to face Hermes. "I have no business with him - you must be mistaken."_

_Hermes, however, was not in the mood to play her game. "He says that since Eros is now of proper age, he may begin his apprenticeship." He crossed his arms. "Personally, I find his concern for your son a bit curious."_

_Her face fell pale. "Yes... Very curious. I am sure his intentions are... well-meaning, though. Tell Ares that his concern is unwarranted."  
_

_"Who, may I ask, will Eros be - "_

_" - and your concern is unwelcome, Hermes. Let me pass." Aphrodite shot him a look of contempt. His curiosity will be his undoing if he continues, she thought._

_So he had touched on a sensitive subject, gathered Hermes. His suspicions must be true, then, but one must be sure... "Zeus may want to know, seeing as his apprenticeship will be preparing him for -"_

_"He will be apprenticing with me," she blurted. Anything else would bring more questions. "Good day, Hermes."_

_Yes, Hermes concluded, that will do. "Good day, Aphrodite," he replied, bowing his head as he let her pass. _

* * *

_"Aphrodite says that Eros will be apprenticing with her."_

_"With her? But that can't be right..." said Ares, shaking his head._

_"She spoke with great resolve on the matter," Hermes added._

_Ares began pacing the floor of his tent. "But Eros clearly..." he stopped mid-sentence, looking up at Hermes. "It's just I saw him playing this morning with a bow and arrow in their yard... The boy has exceptional talent."_

_"I agree," replied Hermes, who stoically bowed his head. "Such natural skills should be developed."_

_"Yes, they..." His tone shifted as Ares caught his meaning. "...should." Surely Aphrodite would have told him if his combat skills were... natural...  
_

_"I can carry that message to her if you like." He would even do it for free, Hermes thought, if he were asked. Her reaction would be quite entertaining, and it would be well worth the cost of the message._

_"No, no. That won't be necessary," said Ares, still ruminating over the possibility Hermes had so delicately suggested. "Your payment is in the pouch on the table over there." He gestured to the far side of the tent and turned his back to Hermes. _

_Ares had never seen a boy with as much military promise as Eros had displayed that morning - the child was clearly a prodigy - and the prospect that such a child was, in fact, his son, made him ecstatic. To be able to fight alongside his son and teach him everything he knew, this would have been his greatest joy.  
_

_"This is heavier than I expected," noted Hermes as he lifted the pouch. _

_"For your discretion," replied Ares, his voice grated with disappointment. "You may go."_

* * *

_"Eros will be fulfilling his apprenticeship with Aphrodite."_

_"What?" Zeus shouted rising from his throne. "Who decided this? Why isn't he apprenticing with his father? Hephaestus needs an assistant more than anyone on Mount Olympus."_

_Hermes evaded the question. "May I remind you, sir, that Aphrodite's duties are quite demanding as well." _

_"Yes," Zeus interjected, settling back into his throne, "I suppose they are."_

_"Love is key to survival, after all. One could even argue that it takes priority over the duties of Hephaestus." She had always been rather egalitarian, anyway, he thought. It was all entirely plausible, if one forgot about Ares._

_Yes, thought Zeus, it did seem like much of the work Hephaestus had been taking on lately was rather unnecessary. As if all of Mount Olympus needed their rooves redone, anyway. "I see your point," he huffed. "But their next son goes with Hephaestus! Make sure he knows that!"_

_"Yes sir," Hermes said, nodding his head as he exited the room._

* * *

_"Zeus has asked me to inform you that your next son will be apprenticing with you."_

_Hephaestus paused mid-swing of his hammer, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Why would he want to tell me that?"_

_"He believes you need an assistant, and since Eros will be apprenticing with his mother-"_

_Hephaestus dropped his hammer on the anvil, and the clang echoed throughout the cave. "-with Aphrodite? When did he say that?"_

_It was Hermes's turn to look confused. "He has not made a command on the matter."_

_Hephaestus shook his head and stepped toward Hermes. "I don't understand. What is going on?"_

_Oh, no..., thought Hermes. No... _

_"Hermes," continued Hephaestus grabbing Hermes by his robes, "tell me what is going on! Why isn't my son apprenticing with me?" _

_"I do not know. Aphrodite simply informed me this morning that Eros will be apprenticing with her."_

_Hephaestus dropped his hands in disbelief. "Why..."_

_Hermes didn't feel it was his place to answer him. "Would you like for me to send for her on your behalf?"_

_"Um..." Hephaestus gazed down at the cave floor. He did not like feeling put on this spot like this, and he tried not to visibly squirm. "Yes, that would be very kind, thank you."_

_"Just doing my job," he said, with a deep bow._

* * *

_"Tell him."_

_The voice startled her. Aphrodite had been relaxing by a pond, and the last thing she expected to see was Hermes's reflection in the water. "Tell him what?" she asked without turning to look at him._

_"Tell him about Eros." _

_His voice sounded so flat... so judgmental. She grazed her hand over the water so she couldn't see his face anymore. "I don't know what you're talking about."_

_"I don't even think Ares knew until this afternoon. Very clever."_

_Ares knows? Aphrodite bit her lip. That can't be possible... "I still don't know what you're -"_

_"He wants to talk with you."_

_"Ares?" She hadn't seen him in so long... Her last reunion with Ares had brought her such humiliation, and she was afraid of what her husband might do if she saw him again. But despite her fears, her mind still hovered on the possibility of seeing him again. She missed him so much, and raising Eros without him made Ares' absence in her life all the more painful._

_"No," said Hermes. "Hephaestus."_

_In shock, Aphrodite turned to face Hermes. "What did you tell him?"_

_To her surprise, Hermes wasn't looking at her with judgment - he was looking at her with compassion. This was not the request of a messenger, but a former lover, a friend. "I didn't tell him anything. But if Ares can figure it out, Hephaestus will figure it out. If he weren't at his forge so much, he would have known by now. You need to tell him."_

* * *

_Children in the village near the mouth of the cave to Hephaestus's forge are told that their ancestors could once hear the swings of his hammer against the anvil. Most of the children dismiss the story as legend, but technically it's true. They did hear him once - one evening, to be precise. _

_On the night Hephaestus spent grieving the loss of a child..._

_The night he spent making sure Aphrodite would know his pain..._


	34. Interlude: Aphrodite and Hephaestus VII

Hephaestus slept for most of the second leg of the journey. He had curled up beside Aphrodite after setting the ship on its course, thinking the excitement from seeing her birthplace had exhausted her, to rest himself after his swim.

But Aphrodite had not intended to fall sleep - she had only been trying to keep herself from crying. Disgusted by the state of the island, she had wanted to keep herself from ever having to see it again, and she had closed her eyes in order to imagine a more beautiful place.

When she felt the ship heave below her as it let loose from the shore, she sighed with relief. Hephaestus assumed the sigh to have escaped from a pleasant dream, and smiled.

Aphrodite pictured the island floated away into the distance, believing it could make her distress float away, as well. Instead, it turned her disappointment into an inexplicable nervousness that she did not know how to overcome.

Once Hephaestus had finished directing the ship in the proper direction, he had found his wife asleep in their bed, spent not from excitement but anxiety. He lay beside her, wrapped his arms around her, and fell asleep in a matter of seconds.

She dreamed of her comfortable shell, floating away, and of an island that no matter how far she travelled, always rested on the horizon.

He dreamed of the sea.


	35. Interlude: Eros and Ares III

Ares had no concept of time, or at least not one that was accurate, and he was almost incapable of tempering his own emotions. These two things Eros had known for most of his life.

When enraged, everything for Ares needed to happen immediately. Any plan needed to begin now - not at a more opportune time, and there was never a need to wait for more accurate information. And since he was a god, even his most reckless plans usually succeeded.

These plans, though, could take years to come into fruition. Ares was perfectly willing to take as long as was necessary for his designs to blossom into weapons of revenge. In this way, Eros found him more potentially terrifying than Hephaestus - at least Hephaestus felt remorse...

And was slow to anger...

Eros stopped rowing.

"Are you sure we're doing the right thing?" he asked without facing Ares, he face lost in thought.

"You think your mother deserves what Hephaestus is going to do to her?" Ares wanted to throw him overboard for even thinking such a thing.

"But he may not be doing anything to her at all. She may be doing something to him, for all you know."

Ares grabbed the oars from Eros. "You clearly need a break, son - you're becoming delusional. Switch places with me. I'm rowing the rest of the way."

Eros felt he should have been happy to have the oars taken away from him, but instead, he regretted having said anything. If he had kept quite, Eros could have waited for Ares to fall asleep, and he could have rowed them both back home. Surely it wouldn't have taken long, what with all the circles Ares had been telling him to make.

Then, it occurred to him - Ares had not slept during the trip, despite ample opportunity for him to do so. Neither had Eros, of course, but for the last few hours, Eros had needed to force his eyes back open at every blink, and he had probably spent more of the last hour with his eyes closed than with his eyes open; Ares, however, who was now thrusting his entire body weight into each stroke, appeared to be so focused on the horizon that he may have stopped blinking altogether.

Eros wondered, as his eyes began to droop, whether Ares ever even felt tired - whether sleeping somehow conflicted with his father's godly duties. Thinking of the way Ares plunged himself so fervently into everything he did, Eros supposed that Ares had always lived as if he were in a dream, as if in another world - as if, in a way, he was always asleep. Perhaps this sort of living somehow satisfied any need for rest.

Thinking of dreams, Eros' mind drifted away... He dreamed of his wife, resting on the hilltop where he had first seen her... Her hair was draped over a sea of wildflowers... He reached out his hand to caress her cheek when...

He felt an oar prod him in the stomach.

"We're here."


	36. Hera II

Hera had been to the village once before, so she had found the island with great ease. The village, however, was not her intended stop, and she landed her elaborate, swan-driven carriage by the shore where no one, especially Thetis, would be able to see it. The only living things nearby that she could see were a flock of sea gulls resting on some rocks and contentedly squawking.

All she had come to do was to dispose of something… but where…

She let the swans loose from their reins, and they began to wander around the beach.

Hera had always found it difficult to imagine Hephaestus living in a place like this. She had become so accustomed to seeing him covered in leather, soot, and sweat that she could not even picture him relaxing, let alone doing so by the sea.

The squawking stopping for a moment as the swans approached the rocks. The sea gulls had never seen any swans before, and they did not know what to make of their new guests.

Hera watched as a few gulls nervously hopped toward the swans. Yes, she thought, as the watched the birds interact with each other, her son had married the wrong woman. "Mother will fix it," she whispered under her breath, as if her son were standing right beside her.

She pulled a sackcloth bag out of the carriage and cocked her head to the wind. At first she heard nothing, but then…

"Aaah, there she is," she proclaimed with a smile, and she began to stroll along the beach toward the village.

Soon, she was within sight of a lone nymph, lost in prayer by the water. Hera straightened her posture and waited for the nymph to finish.

"My child," she finally said in the most regal voice she could muster.

Startled, the nymph jumped to her feet. "Hera! I… what… you…"

Hera stifled a laugh. "Do not be afraid. I have come to reward you for your faithfulness, most pious…" She paused, trying to remember her name "... nymph."

"You have brought me a husband?" The nymph could hardly contain her joy.

"No, I have left that decision up to you. Instead, I have brought you the means by which you may obtain any man you desire." She held out the sackcloth bag for the nymph to take. "Here, my child. It is yours."

The nymph stared at the plain bag in the goddess's hands, confused by its meager presentation. 'What is it?"

"Inside this bag is gift that was given to me by Aphrodite. It helped me… capture the attentions of my own husband," she lied, "and now it will help you capture the attentions of whomever you wish to marry. Find a time where you may be alone with your intended, and before you meet with him, slip this on underneath your clothes. I promise you, no matter who this man is, he will be unable to resist you."

The nymph hesitantly took the bag from Hera's hand. She wished Hera had simply brought her a husband instead, but if this is the will of the gods… "Thank you, Hera. I will make a worthy sacrifice in your honor."

"That will not be necessary. Your happiness alone will be enough for me." At that, she bowed her head slightly toward the nymph and turned away.

When she arrived back at the spot she had left her carriage, she found her swans interspersed among the sea gulls, resting on the rocks and nestled against each other like old friends.

"Get back over here!" she shouted to them, and they all anxiously hurried back to their places by the reins, to the dismay of the sea gulls.

"I can't take you anywhere," she sighed, and she ordered them to take her back to Mount Olympus.


	37. Eros and Ares IV

"Wait… Where are we…"

Eros stepped off the boat in a daze. Whatever island this was that Ares has brought them to, this could not possibly be the right place. This was just a forest, and there was no sign of civilization anywhere. "Where is the village?"

Ares stepped triumphantly off the ship. "We're not at the village. Not yet, anyway. We have to make a stop first."

"A stop? What…" He was not awake enough for this.

"Maybe you should stay and look after the boat. I'll be right back." Waving a hand behind him toward his son, Ares stomped off toward the forest.

"Wait… when you say 'right back'….", said Eros, cautiously looking up and down the empty shoreline, "how long do you mean?"

But Ares did not respond. It will be good for him to wait, he thought. It will be a nice character building exercise.

"At least tell me where you're going!" shouted Eros.

"Tartarus," replied Ares, as he disappeared into the forest.

Great, thought Eros. This trip keeps getting better and better.

* * *

Descending into Tartarus was like descending into night itself. No light could enter the cave, and as one climbed down the side, all that could be heard were echoes of barking, growling, and howling. After what seemed like hours, Ares finally felt like he could see the ground before him, on account of a soft glow of light in the distance.

Charon must be close, he thought.

The barking by this time had become a deafening roar, and had not let up since his entrance into the cave. For a mortal, Ares imagined, such an experience was surely terrifying.

Soon, he found himself standing before a sliver of a man, bundled up in a reddish-brown cloak, and hunched over a pole, which he held in his right hand.

Upon seeing Ares, the man stretched out his other hand and in a deep, scratchy voice said, "One obolus."

As if I carry money, Ares thought. His pulled out his sword, holding it so the light from Charon's torch would bounce off the metal and into his eyes. "Care to repeat that?"

Charon groaned and gestured for Ares to get on his boat.

The ferryman weaved the boat around various stalagmites and stalactites, all covered with a garish, green ooze that made the entire river smell like a battle-field.

"You ever think about cleaning up this place?" asked Ares, trying to make conversation.

Charon groaned again. Ares had never known him to be a talkative man, but with the persistent barking that filled the chamber, it was entirely possible that Charon simply couldn't hear him.

"Welcome to the Underworld," said Charon, wafting his free hand toward the large three-headed dog guarding the gate once they arrived at their destination.

"Thank you," replied Ares with some hesitation. He had never taken the Underworld to be an especially welcoming place, which, considering this was supposedly the eternal home of millions of people, had always struck him as strange. He couldn't imagine what it was like for Hades to live there, spending every single day in a place no one wanted to be.

Ares tried to open the gate himself, but the three-headed dog kept snapping one of its mouths at his hands before he could turn the handle.

"Cerberus, heel," cooed Charon, who was quite amused by the proceedings and had no intention of stopping them.

Cerberus continued barking and snapping his mouths, and with every attempt to open the gate, Ares became more exasperated than the next. Seeing that Charon had no interest in helping him, Ares backed away a little from the gate.

"You'll have to forgive Cerberus; he is very protective of his-"

"SIT!"

Ares's voice filled the cave and shook a few weaker stalactites down from the roof.

Cerberus was so shocked at hearing a voice louder than his own that all of his heads fell silent, and he obediently sat down.

With Cerberus sufficiently occupied, Ares finally opened the gate and entered the Underworld, as the stunned Charon looked on from his boat.

Now to see if Hades is in the mood to make a deal. Again.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the surface, Eros was becoming more and more on edge. With every movement of the trees, he assumed that some demon was going to leap out and attack him for trespassing. Even though he knew this was highly unlikely, he stayed crouched in the boat and kept an arrow at the ready, just in case.

When the trees parted for a split second, revealing a man that was not wearing his father's characteristic red tunic, Eros reacted with lightning speed, and let loose the arrow from his bow.

Then it occurred to him… that probably wasn't a good idea…

Looking down at his quiver, he pulled out another arrow and brushed his fingers against the feathered-edge.

Wrong arrow…


	38. Apollo

"What the… You've got to be kidding me… EROS!"

Eros, afraid he had accidentally shot the arrow at his father, instinctively ducked back into the canoe.

"Eros! You did NOT just try to shoot me with an arrow… AGAIN! What is your problem?"

That wasn't his father…

Suddenly, a shadow fell over Eros's head. He sheepishly twisted himself around and tried to think of something to say.

"Apollo… What a pleasant-"

Apollo glared down at Eros and snapped the arrow in two, glaring down at Eros as he did so.

"Did you think that was for you?" Eros emitted a nervous chuckle. "Why would I-"

"That is precisely what I would like to know. Why would you?" Apollo loomed over Eros like a predator about the deal its final blow, his every muscle accentuated by the sunlight behind him.

"Even the gods make mistakes, Apollo… I swear I didn't know you were there…"

"Then why were ready to shoot me?" Apollo still had not blinked, and his eyes bore down on Eros as if they were shooting arrows of their own. "Are you bored?"

"I-I… I grabbed the wrong arrow," he admitted.

"What, so you wanted to kill me?" roared Apollo.

"No… not you… I thought you were… something else," Eros stammered, hoping Ares would bound toward them any second.

Apollo was enjoying seeing Eros squirm. Planning to make his prey's anxiety worse, he shifted his tone shifted from a roar to a low rumble. "What did you think I was?"

Eros threw his hands into the air in desperation. "I don't know, Apollo! I don't know! I'm sorry! Please, just leave me alone!"

At these last three words, Apollo's face lit up with inspiration. "Leave… you… alone? That's a funny thing for you to ask someone to do… Leave… you… alone…"

"Apollo," interrupted Eros, who could see where this was going, "please, I didn't-"

"Oh, yes you did. _You_ shot a golden arrow at me. _You_ shot a leaden arrow at Daphne. _You_ watched as she ran away from me." Apollo pointed his finger into Eros's face. "_You._"

"Apollo, I'm-"

"You made her rather turn into a tree than be with me. A tree, Eros!" he shouted, taking the laurel wreath off his head and shaking it for emphasis. "_You!_"

"Really, Apollo, I can-"

"And you want ME to leave YOU alone?" Apollo's attention turned to the wreath in his hand, regretting the possible damage he may have caused the branches, and he began gingerly smoothing over the leaves with his fingertips. "You've got a lot of nerve," he added finally, his voice hushed by his own pain.

"Apollo, I really don't know what to say. I'm sorry."

"I don't care," he replied, and he turned to walk away.

"I believe my son just apologized to you," said Ares, now standing a short distance away.

"This is none of your business, Ares," Apollo murmured without flinching from his course.

No one dismisses Ares, he thought, especially after speaking that way to his son. He rushed toward Apollo and grabbed him by his tunic. "Guess again. My son is my business, and I don't like you talking to him that way."

"I see," said Apollo, yanking himself from Ares's grasp and straightening his tunic. "Butting yourselves into everyone else's lives just to get what you want. Like father, like son, I suppose."

"What is that supposed to mean?" sneered Ares.

"It's just you both interject yourselves into the lives of others so much… you violate the natural beauty of human relationships with your petty grievances and desires… warping their minds with your own obsessions… and the sorrows you both unleash…" His voice trailed off, as if lost in his own imaginings. "…You all unleash…"

Ares rolled his eyes and groaned. "I don't have time for this – she's probably on her way now. Come on, Eros - let's go."

"On her way? On her way where?"

"I'm not talking about it in front of Shiny over here," he said, gesturing toward Apollo as he headed for the boat. "Now hand me that oar."


	39. Aphrodite and Hephaestus VIII

Aphrodite felt like she should be nervous, that she should be somewhat worried about visiting her husband's surrogate mother. But she felt nothing.

Anyone else, she thought, would be mulling over what to say, what subjects to either address or avoid. The rebirth of her relationship with Hephaestus, for example: address. The Trojan War: avoid.

But instead, she was surprised to find that she didn't care. This woman could not possibly affect her life in any way, she thought, and if Hephaestus's love for her was so fragile that it could be broken by a tart word from his mother, than she didn't want it, anyway.

Tired of contemplating her feelings, she looked out to the sea. The island was just a blip on the horizon. Hephaestus had excitedly hobbled to the helm to steer the ship toward the port himself, and had been babbling ever since about the people and places he would show her.

Aphrodite wasn't listening. Most of what he was saying made no sense to her, so she simply interjected positive comments here and there to keep him going.

She noticed he had stopped speaking for a moment.

"This sounds like a wonderful place, Hephaestus."

"Oh it is, Aphrodite, and so beautiful, too, in an honest, down-to-earth sort of way, not like Olympus at all, though how could it be; I mean, Olympus is on a mountain and…"

There we go, she thought, and she let his voice wash over her again.

She should find this interesting, she thought. He's talking about aesthetics now, after all. But she had spent the last few weeks in a ship that now felt like a cramped life raft, after all the time they had spent drifting leisurely drifting aboard it. Maybe that was part of the reason Hephaestus was so happy, they were about to encounter civilization for the first time in months.

Other people… other faces… she longed for them as a drowning man longs for air. Surely she was not alone in this feeling, she thought.

"…and everything smells like the sea and…"

He had said this already. A few times. Aphrodite sighed.

The island was much closer now. She could almost make out different colors… the beach… the trees…

"… but I'm sure Mom will have a few of the nymphs attend to you while you're here, so you have nothing to worry about..."

The buildings… so close…

"… I mean, it's not like there's a lot to do, it's a small village, but the people are so friendly, and a good conversation can be better than…"

She might even be able to have a whole hour without seeing Hephaestus's face… maybe even a whole day…

"…and besides, if you really think about what there is to do on Mt. Olympus, it's not that much different…"

Hephaestus messed with the rigging as he spoke, slowing the ship down as it approached the dock. Aphrodite was so excited that when her body shifted forward from the new speed, she got chills.

"Alright, let me get everything settled first, and then I'll push the ramp out."

"That's OK, I can jump."


	40. Part V: Revelations

Seeing Aphrodite jump off the boat and hurry to the shore, Hephaestus chuckled. He had not expected that Aphrodite would be this excited when she actually saw the village. For the last few days, she encouraged him to keep blabbering on about even the most minute details of the place, and yet she still seemed excited, perhaps even surprised to see it in person.

"We should probably check in with Mom before we go anywhere else. Her house is right over there, if you want to go on ahead while…"

Before he could finish, Aphrodite was already sprinting toward town.

No, she wasn't just sprinting… could she actually be skipping? Shaking his head, Hephaestus chuckled again and went back to securing the boat.

This was going to be a lovely day, he thought. He would soon get see his Mother again, for the first time since moving to Mt. Olympus, and they would all soon be sharing a meal together as a family. Then tomorrow, he would get to introduce Aphrodite to all his childhood friends and show her around the village. Aphrodite would probably be just as excited to see his old forge as she'd been to see the rest of the village; she'd probably ask dozens of questions and…

Then it hit him… Aphrodite would be in his old forge. It was as if his entire reality were folding onto itself to touch on this single point… The center of his present life would be standing in the center of his past…

Oh, if only he had known then what he knew now! All those hours spent hunched over the furnace, fine-tuning his craft, assuming that there would never be anything more to his life... and here he was now, laughing at something silly that his wife, Aphrodite, that the goddess of love herself had done. He was returning to his forge a man in love - and so far removed from his previous self that he may as well have made it up.

Thinking of his former pessimism, however, began to remind him of its cause, and his recollection of his childhood became a little less rosy and detached.

This had been, of course, the place his imperfection had defined him, and where, despite the best efforts of his adoptive mother and the other nymphs to cheer him up, he had whole-heartedly believed he would always be alone. This had been the village that had never known what to make of him – the boy who claimed to be fully divine, yet bore such a visible imperfection as to confuse even the least faithful. Most assumed he had been simply lying or playing some kind of game, but even those who had believed him would never have considered letting him marry into their families, for fear his deformity was the mark of some kind of curse.

But time is always changing… The ebb and flow of events like foam lapping the shore… The substance returns, but never in the same shape… Never in the same place… If something so insignificant as sea-foam is constantly changing, how could he have thought a lifetime would be any different?

As he tightened the last knot, Hephaestus thought he could hear footsteps behind him – faint creaking in the wood, as if the steps were deliberately light…

I'll surprise her, he thought….

3… 2… 1…

Hephaestus jumped to face her and was about to shout that he'd caught her when he noticed that the person standing on the deck before him was not his wife.

The young woman's eyes were wide, and she appeared to be frozen in her spot mid-step. Despite her obvious fright, the woman - with her chiton, delicately draped around her body, and her stance, with one foot slightly in front of the other and with one knee slightly bent - bore a striking resemblance to a statue of a goddess in a temple.

"I'm very sorry; I thought you were my wife," Hephaestus said to the woman, bowing his head in an attempt to appear less threatening.

The woman made no response, still too startled to speak.

"My name is Hephaestus…" he continued.

The woman mumbled something that Hephaestus could not understand.

"Sorry?" he said, taking a step toward her.

The woman cleared her voice and seemed to be trying to collect herself. "I said I know. You probably don't recognize me; I was still young when you moved away. My name is Algaea. I'm a water nymph. You used to race my older sisters in the ocean."

Hephaestus felt awful; he had no recollection of this woman at all. There were a few water nymphs that were good friends of his growing up, but he had no recollection of any particular ones with a younger sister that sat aside and watched. Not wanting to disappoint her, he tried to gracefully continue the conversation.

"Wow, racing… It has been a long time since I raced someone. And I am so much older now… I am out of practice," Hephaestus chuckled with a smile Perhaps a joke will calm her down.

"But you're a god; how could you need practice?" the nymph retorted.

"Yes… yes…" Hephaestus replied. The nymph had replied with such certainty that he wondered whether she understood his meaning. The satyrs must have a field day with her, he thought.

"I would offer you a race, but I have been asked to attend to your wife while she is here," the nymph replied, folding her hands in front of her in a decisive manner.

This should be interesting, thought Hephaestus. Aphrodite should find her naivety amusing. "That… is very kind of you, thank you. Aphrodite has already gone ahead to my mother's, though."

"She didn't wait for you?" The nymph seemed legitimately confused.

"I was just fixing up the rigging – I wasn't doing anything interesting," answered Hephaestus, a bit confused now himself.

"But wouldn't she want… Never mind, it is not my place. I will go to Thetis's house now and see if Aphrodite needs anything." The nymph made a little curtsy and turned to leave the boat.

"Thanks, again…" …he tried to think of her name, but he couldn't remember it.

The nymph gingerly walked off the boat. When she had almost left the landing, she turned back to Hephaestus. "It was nice to see you again," she added, after which she nervously bolted toward Thetis's home.

Hephaestus could swear she had been blushing... Well, I'm sure not on Mt. Olympus anymore, he thought.

This will definitely be an interesting trip…

* * *

**_Happy Chapter 40, everyone!_**

**_From the comments, I see we have a Team Ares/Team Hephaestus thing going on now... Not telling here what will happen... but keep the comments coming! I love hearing from you! _**

**_Also saw some comments about later doing an Apollo/Athena or Eros story... I've been having so much fun writing this story, that I will definitely write more Greek myth stories after this one. :)_**

**_Again, a big thank you to all the What is Love fans out there, and happy reading!_**


	41. Aphrodite III

Aphrodite was used to most people stopping whatever they were doing to watch her pass by them, so she paid no attention to the reactions she received walking through the village. People were dropping things, knocking things over, bumping into each other… but Aphrodite was so accustomed to these occurrences that she was barely aware of them.

She had, however, noticed a fruit stand just past Thetis's home. Not looking forward to being alone with Thetis - considering she had cheated on one of her sons and helped kill another in a war she'd indirectly started - she decided to get a snack while she waited for husband.

"Hello, how are you today?" she asked the vendor.

"I'm… fine…" the vendor stammered, to nervous to even look her in the face, "Can I… help you?"

"Hmmm… I think I would like a pomegranate, please."

The vendor's hands shook as tried to pick out the best pomegranate to give to her, reaching out for one, then another, then back to the first, before anxiously deciding on a third. "Here you are…" he replied.

"Thank you. How much do I owe you?"

"Oh, no, no, no… You don't… owe me anything…" he said, curling his chin to his chest. "Please… take it."

As much as she appreciated the man's boyish fear of her, she did not like that she had so visibly caused him such distress. She reached out her hand, but instead of taking the pomegranate, she lifted the man's head to face her. "Thank you," she said, meeting his gaze. "I give you my blessing."

This was too much for him to take. Unable to speak, he first thought of bowing in gratitude, but Aphrodite's hand was still under his chin, so he figured this was not the best course of action. He almost dropped the pomegranate, and instinctively jerked in time to catch it – afraid that if the fruit fell to the ground, she might take her blessing back.

Aphrodite smiled, trying to calm him down. "Do you have a wife?" she asked him.

The vendor tried to think for a minute… Did he have a wife? He couldn't remember… When he went home, was there a woman there? Think… think… "No", he finally said.

"Then before Hephaestus and I return to Mt. Olympus, you shall have someone to love. This I promise you." At that, she removed her hand from his chin, took the apple, and bid him goodbye.

When she turned around to see if Hephaestus had finished with the boat yet, she noticed a crowd had gathered around the fruit stand. The people were all muttering to each other and looking toward her with amazement.

"Who would have guessed Hephaestus would end up married to_ Aphrodite_?" she heard someone whisper.

"Who would have guessed Hephaestus would end up married to anybody?" she heard someone else reply.

"What was that?" she called out. These people were killing her post-blessing buzz.

Silence. Of course, she thought – she should have known that no one would say anything after that. So, she began scanning the crowd, searching for two faces that looked more frightened than the rest.

There they were. Two middle-aged women – sweat beading on their foreheads and fingers fidgeting with the hems of their clothes. Aphrodite walked toward them, staring them down.

"What was that you said about my husband?"

"Nnnn..nothing," one of the women finally said.

"I don't care very much for lies, child," she replied, peering down at the woman who spoke. "Love and lies do not go well together."

"It's just…" squeaked the second woman, not wanting to get punished, but once she started speaking, she couldn't think of a way to continue without sounding insulting.

"Yes?" Aphrodite prodded, turning her attention to the other woman.

"Hephaestus… wasn't very lucky with love before he met you. That's all." The woman instinctively backed away a little once she was finished, as if she subconsciously afraid Aphrodite would slap her.

Not lucky with love… These people made no sense... "But he's a god, and you're all…" Demeanor, Aphrodite reminded herself. "How could he not have been lucky with love?"

Again, no response.

"I made no decree against him," Aphrodite added, thinking out loud. "Why was he unlucky in love?" She looked around the crowd as if they were all personally responsible. If this had been simply one of her followers, she would have still been disturbed, but this was Hephaestus… Not only was he kind and talented, but he was fully divine, for goodness sake… He should have been the most popular person in the village.

Again, no one responded.

Hephaestus had spoken so highly of this place, and now it seemed so ignorant and cruel. She wanted to grab Hephaestus by the hand and keep him away from here forever.

"It… it…" she heard the vendor behind her stutter.

"What was that?" she said, turning around to hear him.

"I… I wasn't around then, but I was told… it was because of his feet. Gods are supposed to look perfect, and… his feet…" he couldn't say it.

Aphrodite couldn't believe what she was hearing. "His feet?" she asked under her breath. "He was unlucky in love because of his feet?" This was not the way human beings were supposed to behave, she thought, whether they followed her or not – she must have misheard him.

The vendor nodded, hoping she would not ask him to elaborate.

Incensed, Aphrodite whipped herself around to face the crowd again. "His feet?" She exclaimed, as if the words were weapons she could fling at them all. "Hephaestus is one of the kindest, gentlest, most compassionate and understanding beings I have ever met! His feet?"

The crowd looked to her with a kind of collective shame, despite the fact that most in the crowd were too young to have known Hephaestus when he lived there.

"And his other features… do none of you find them attractive? He is a beautiful man, perfectly formed… His feet are fine the way-"

Aphrodite stopped, seized by her own hypocrisy. Had she not found him repulsive when she first met him? Had she not judged him by his feet? What a stupid thing to define someone by - feet… How could she have done such a horrible thing...

Demeanor… Aphrodite reminded herself. Demeanor…

"Besides," she continued, directing her words at the whisperers from before, "must one be beautiful to have love? Judging by what I see here, it is clearly not a prerequisite. I mean, the two of you have husbands, yes?"

The women nodded, too afraid to speak.

After letting the women squirm for a moment, she gladly made her way through the crowd back toward Thetis's home. She was done with these people, she thought, and besides, Hephaestus should be done by now, too.


	42. Aphrodite, Ares, and Eros

Eros lay in the boat with his wings curled around himself to shield his eyes from the sun. He drifted in and out of sleep as he thought of his wife, his mother, his father... Hephaestus...

Perhaps it was good that Ares had dragged him along. As the two had travelled on this seemingly endless course after Aphrodite, Eros had found it harder and harder to believe that Hephaestus would ever hurt her. He'd had so many chances before, and she had given him every excuse to leave her, but he never had.

Eros thought back to when he was little... He imagined the sitting room, where Hephaestus and Aphrodite would relax after dinner - he in his chair, she on her couch - while Eros played on the floor between them. They would barely speak to each other, yet the room never felt tense - it was a comfortable sort of quiet that never begged for interruption.

Yet, he recalled, there were so many things that needed to be said. Of course, the two would never say them to each other, but apart, they couldn't help but leak out. There was Aphrodite, directing him on how to spot a potential match - noting how these two had similar interests, and those two spoke so openly with each other. There was Hephaestus, making weapons for Ares at his forge - remarking how a thing is not defined by the way it is made, only by the way it is used - how something made with the purest intentions could be used to inflict pain, and vice versa.

Whether this was where he discovered his gift for assessing relationships, or whether this had simply fostered an aptitude for it, he was not sure. But this had been why Zeus had chosen him to rule over romantic love. On the afternoons Eros spent with Hera, when he believed her to be his grandmother, he would tell her about all the couples he had seen on his apprenticeship and all the unspoken truths behind their problems. This had caught Zeus's attention; the boy had a keen eye, and Zeus knew better than to let such a person become his enemy.

As he remembered these things, Eros wanted to kick himself. Why had he relied on the instincts of Ares, ever-ready for battle, instead of his own? This was _his_ field of expertise after all, yet he had foolishly let his father's fears overpower him. Now, as Ares rowed on like a madman, Eros's initial doubts over the true danger of his mother's situation matured into full-on dissent. He had to keep his father from doing something stupid, he vowed himself. The fates had surely put him in this boat for a reason.

Poor Hephaestus, he thought, you have no idea what is coming. If you only knew...

* * *

Aphrodite grew more confident in her next course of action with each passing step. This was a man that deserved love, she told herself, and she was going to be the one to give it to him.

Oh, how happy she could make him…

Her mind blossomed into a kind of euphoria, filling itself with all the ways she could make him feel loved. With each affectionate gesture, she could wipe away his insecurities. The years of abuse he had suffered at the hands of this wretched place would be stripped away, revealing the glowing, beautiful man that lay beneath – a man, for once, he would finally be able to see for himself.

She had never used her abilities to love in such an altruistic manner before – building someone up instead of sating her own deeper longings. Her goal was now to bring Hephaestus to a blissful stupor - creating for him a world so full of love, he would fall to his knees under the weight of it - and she would not let up until she had done so.

Her entire being resonated at the idea – this was her arena. This had been why Zeus had chosen her to rule over love – she had a gift, and he knew better than to let such a person become his enemy.

She looked down at Thetis's home, imagining Hephaestus inside speaking with his mother about some trivial thing that had changed since his departure from the island. He might even be telling her of their reconciliation, she thought, and she smiled.

Dear Hephaestus, she cooed to herself, you have no idea what is coming. If you only knew…

* * *

"Wake up!" Ares shouted, slapping the side of the boat.

Eros awoke with a start. "Wha… wha… was that a shark?"

"It'll be something much worse if you don't get out of this boat and push it ashore with me," grunted Ares with a heave.

"We're here?" Had the journey actually ended? It felt like they had been at sea for months…

"Yes, we're here." Anxious to find Aphrodite, he grabbed Eros by his robe and pulled him off the boat. "Push," he grunted again.

"I'm pushing, I'm pushing…", muttered Eros, settling himself in the water so he could grab the side of the boat. Ares already pushing so hard, though, that there was little more that he could do to contribute, and instead he found himself jogging behind the boat to catch up.

When Ares's mind was focused on a goal, nothing could stop him from attaining it. This had been why Zeus had chosen him as the ruler of war – his will power was a force unto itself, and Zeus knew better than to let such a person become his enemy.

Before Ares had even left Olympus, his method of attack had been planned to the letter… He would catch Hephaestus at the old forge, or lure him there if necessary… Thus cornered, Ares would be in the infantry… his son the artillery… and, if all went well, his secret weapon would deal the final blow. Thinking of these things, Ares laughed.

Oh Hephaestus, he cooed to himself, you have no idea what is coming. If you only knew…


	43. The Truth Lingers

**_The Truth Lingers_**

_Hephaestus could not bear to look at Eros. This boy he had thought of as his son, his perfect son, the joy of his existence, was not his to claim. Those eyes were not his eyes, those feet were not his feet…._

_But Eros was still so young – he would not understand. So Hephaestus tried to act as he had before, sitting with Eros in the evenings and playing the occasional game with him._

_This being said, Eros was more in tune with Hephaestus than he realized. Already, Eros had noticed a change in his father's behavior towards him, but with no idea as to its cause, he assumed he had fallen out of his father's favor somehow, and took it personally. In vain, he tried to discern in his young mind what he could have done wrong, blaming the distance on everything from the untidiness of his room to his reluctance in doing his chores._

_On a particularly painful day, Eros had begged Aphrodite to let him skip a day of his apprenticeship to visit Hephaestus at the forge. He had never been there before, and for most of the morning, he stared in fascination at all the weapons hanging on the walls._

_"Who is this one for?" asked Eros, pointing at a sword. "It looks heavy!"_

_Not that one, he thought… That was Ares's new sword... Stronger than the one he'd try to use against him in his old forge, by his request… Why had he allowed himself to make that one? "Yes, it is very heavy." Heavier than you know…_

_"Can I hold it?"_

_Hephaestus shot him a look, which he quickly covered over with a smile. He didn't know what he was doing, he thought, correcting himself - there's no reason to be upset with him. "No, Eros, it's too dangerous."_

_Looking at the sword, Hephaestus got an idea… A person is more than blood after all..._

_"You know," he began, slowly, "I've never liked swords…"_

_"You haven't?" Eros sounded legitimately intrigued._

_"No, I haven't…. Such a brutal way to kill someone… I mean, I could never use a sword." Hephaestus tinkered away at some details so he could hide the purpose behind his words._

_"Why not?" Eros squatted down by the anvil and crossed his legs, enraptured. His father had not spoken to him like this in awhile, and he wanted to soak up every word._

_"I couldn't kill someone after looking them in the eyes. I mean, that is someone's son, someone's father, someone's husband… I would never do well in battle."_

_Eros pondered this for a moment. "I'd never thought about it like that before…"_

_Of course you haven't, thought Hephaestus. No, he corrected himself again, he shouldn't think things like that..._

_"So, you wouldn't fight in a war?"_

_"If I had to, I would, but only if I had to. I prefer love to war – I guess that's what I get for being married to your mother." Hephaestus, feeling a lump catch in his throat, brought his face closer to his work and angled it away from his son. This ruse was taking too much out of him, he thought – he might not be able to keep it going much longer._

_"I like love, too," Eros stated decisively. His straightened his little back like a general, but his expression belied a softer view of the world - more compassionate, albeit in a childlike sort of way. Watching him out of the corner of his eye, Hephaestus realized he may have ad an affect on him after all._

_Hephaestus turned to face him, watching the bits of himself reflected in the way Eros sat on the floor, in the way he cocked his head to the side when he waited for the other person to speak. "I'm glad you like love, son."_

_Yes, this boy was his son. He may not have inherited his eyes, but he had inherited his heart. Hephaestus put his work down and wrapped his arms around him. "I'm glad you came today," he whispered into his ear, and he hugged him so tight that Eros began to squirm._

_"I can't breathe", he eeked._

_When Hephaestus let him go, he accidentally knocked what he had been working on off the anvil._

_"What is that?" Eros asked._

_"It's… a clasp... for a robe."_

_"What robe?" asked Eros, looking around the room. "You mean that one over there?"_

_"Um… Yes." Before he could reach out to stop him, Eros was already heading for the robe. "No, no, no! Don't touch it! It's... a commission."_

_"What kind of robe is it? Is it for Mom?"_

_Mom… the way he said 'mom' made his heart break. Aphrodite… He could not give such a thing to Eros's mother - no, he could never hurt him that way… "No," he finally said, "it's for someone else."_

_Eros wandered back toward the anvil, already disinterested in the robe. "Mom says I'm going to have a sister. She told me not to tell you, though – she wants make it a surprise."_

_Hephaestus's face suddenly felt numb. "A sister?" That would definitely be a surprise..._

_"Yup – I overheard her talking about it with Ili… Ili… Ilithy…"_

_"Ilithyia…" Hephaestus felt as if he were disappearing. Ilithyia… the goddess of childbirth… It had only been a few months since… the incident… And the last time he had shared a bed with his wife was… So long ago…_

_No… Not another one..._

_"Dad?" Eros peered up at him, his eyes wide, from beside the anvil. "Are you OK? I know I wasn't supposed to tell you, but I couldn't hold it in anymore." He looked sheepishly to the floor. "I'm sorry."_

_Hephaestus tried to make out a smile and patted his head. "No, son, you didn't do anything wrong."_

_

* * *

_

_It took every ounce of Hephaestus's being not to become physically ill, but he managed to keep himself together until they were home and he had tucked Eros into his bed._

_Aphrodite was in the sitting room, reading a scroll. She had no idea that he knew, and she wasn't even showing yet. He wanted to scream at her, to kick her out of the palace, but he couldn't muster even a syllable. It was all too exhausting._

_He went up to their bedroom, the room this new 'sister' had been conceived in, and locked the door behind him. He didn't care where she slept anymore._

_This was the first night Aphrodite slept in the extra bedroom, as she would for decades to come._


	44. A Visit from Family

"Hephaestus! It is so good to see you again!" Thetis threw her arms around her son, and, as she was a few feet shorter than him, kissed him on his chest.

Aphrodite had been dreading seeing Thetis for so long that in her mind, the woman had become a gargantuan beast, capable of devouring her with a single sharp glance or sour word. But in person Thetis was a sliver of a thing, swallowed by the copious amounts of blue and gray fabric that made up her dress, yards more than were necessary.

Thetis extended her hand out to Aphrodite. Her hand was so slender and frail it looked like a bit of pale seaweed, or a sun-bleached stick poking out of the ocean.

"It is good to see you, Aphrodite," she said with a pained graciousness only a family holiday could inspire.

Aphrodite returned the charm in kind. "It is good to see you, too, Thetis. What a lovely home you have."

"It is much different than the palaces my son has made, I'm sure," Thetis replied as she retired to a sitting chair.

"Mother, I told you I would be more than happy to make you one! I would make one finer than any on Mount Olympus, you know that!" Hephaestus dropped Aphrodite's hand and followed Thetis like a puppy to the sitting room.

Thetis waved her hand, happy with the sentiment she had drawn out of her son. "No, no – I prefer my home here. Why would I want a new home when I can have the home my children grew up in? There is no better filigree in the world than memory."

Aphrodite watched Thetis retire to a large chair by a window in the corner of the room, where she began picking at a bowl of ambrosia. The tableau was a reflection of her husband at home, or rather he had grown into a reflection of her. This had been all she had seen of him for decades… picking at his bowl… reading a scroll… The resemblance was uncanny.

"Are you hungry?" Hephaestus asked Aphrodite, noticing the attention she was paying to the bowl.

"No, I'm fine, thank you," she said, shaking herself from her daydream with an empty smile.

"If you do get hungry," Thetis muttered, "let Aglaea know. I've asked her to attend to you while you are here. She would be happy to fetch anything you need." As she spoke, a shy, wispy-looking person appeared in the doorway, simply dressed and her head tilted toward the floor. "She is known in this village for her kindness, so do not be afraid to ask her for anything."

She would be pretty if she presented herself with a little more confidence, thought Aphrodite. Perhaps if she let people see her eyes… Wait…

She could see her eyes… Her shy glances toward…

"You are very kind, Thetis," remarked Aphrodite, "This is a great honor, offering me the assistance of one of your nymphs. Isn't she beautiful, Hephaestus?"

Hephaestus was not sure how to answer. "Oh, um… yes, quite beautiful," he finally replied, waiting on tender nerves for Aphrodite's reaction. She was more interested, however in Aglaea's face, which, though still turned toward the floor, now flushed pink.

Aphrodite wondered for a moment whether Thetis had chosen her deliberately for this reason, but she dismissed the idea as soon as it popped into her head. None of that today, she thought. Joy and mirth… Joy and mirth…

The evening passed without a hitch. Placid pleasantries were passed about the room throughout dinner and well into the night. Hephaestus eventually excused himself, exhausted from their travels, and announced he was going to take a nice warm bath to relax his legs. Still uneasy at the thought of being alone with Thetis, no matter how breakable she appeared now, Aphrodite announced that she wished to take a walk before bed, and walked about the room.

She was starting to get used to the smell of the village, the mix of sea-spray, fish, and wet earth. If one grew up with such a smell surround them, she pondered, she could see how one could miss it.

It was strange walking through the village so late at night. The village was so small that everyone was most likely asleep, or on their way there. She sauntered down the lane, not for any seductive purposes, but out of sheer relaxation. No one to perform for… No one to impress… No one to subdue…

She realized she hadn't been alone in months. On the voyage, Hephaestus had always been nearby, always within earshot. Now all she had to contend with was the breeze.

She closed her eyes and felt the wind on her face, on her arms, flapping her dress, combing her hair. It gave so freely, so naturally…

And the wonderful music it made... turning the trees into strumming lyres, the waves into hushed poetry...

The leaves into tapping drums... wait... were those footsteps?

She flung her eyes open, half-expecting to see Hephaestus, but silhouette up the path was not a man…

Was it the nymph? What was her name?

"Hello?" Aphrodite called out.

No response.

"Who is there?"

The wind gushed by her ears. Nothing.

Aphrodite rushed toward the figure. It stood just outside the village; surely it could hear her.

As she got closer, she could make out the figure's face. It was a woman, young… her expression vacant, as if she had lost something dear to her and had no hope of getting it back.

"Hello? Are you alright?" Aphrodite stretched out her hand to touch the figure's shoulder.

"Don't," she said, jerking away. "No one is supposed to touch me." The woman lifted her gazed expression to meet Aphrodite's; as their eyes met, a chill ran down Aphrodite's spine. "Who are you?"

"I don't know. The man by the sea told me to come find Aphrodite. Do you who she is?" Her words leaked out of her as if she were in some kind of trance.

"What man by the sea? Who did this to you?"

"I… I don't know. I am just supposed to find Aphrodite. The man said I am to find her and give her this box." She pulled a wooden box out of a satchel she had slung over her arm.

Aphrodite grabbed the box from her hand. "Who gave this to you?"

"Are you Aphrodite?" Her posture drifted upward in exhausted expectation.

"Who gave this to you?"

"You must be her. I'm supposed to watch you open the box. I can't open it."

Aphrodite wanted to shake the eerie creature to her senses. "What is going on? What is in this box?"

"The man by the sea said this is a present for you."

"What man by the sea? Why couldn't he bring it here himself?"

"He did not want to alarm you. Please do not be afraid. This is a gift. He said it is the most precious thing he can give you."

"So this is from someone I know? Tell me what is going on right now or I-"

"He said the box will tell you. Open the box."

This woman was seriously giving her the creeps, and though she knew she would regret it, she creaked open the box, bracing herself for some horrible thing to fly out and attack her.

But nothing did. All that was in the box was a necklace…

A beautiful necklace…

The most beautiful necklace she had ever seen…

"Who gave this to you?" she asked, softly this time. Did she have a secret admirer somewhere? The only person she knew that could make such a thing was Hephaestus, and he was…

"The man… this… I know this necklace…" stammered the strange woman, appearing to awaken from her stupor. "I…" She began squinting, as if she were suffering a massive headache. "I... know…"

"You know what?" She should have just stayed home. An evening with Thetis would surely have been better than this. "What do you know?"

"I know… I know… I… know…" her voice trailed off, as she appeared to double over in pain. No, it wasn't pain… she was crying… was she grieving? Aphrodite didn't care what the woman said, she had to see if the woman was alright. She rushed forward to help her back up to her feet when…

"NO!" The woman screamed, and grabbed the box, wrapping her body around it as if it she were shielding a baby. "Don't touch it! Don't ever touch it! Don't… don't…", her voice trailed off again, smothered by her own sobbing.

"What is it?" Aphrodite asked, afraid of the answer. "What does it do?"

"It… It… It.." she murmured between sobs, "It makes you beautiful."

That's it? What was this woman's problem? "What, do you want it? You're beautiful the-"

"NO! Don't touch it!" she screamed again, shifting her body further away from Aphrodite. "It is… horrible."

"What are you talking about? What's going on? Who gave this to you?"

"My mother… a wedding present…"

Aphrodite was confused. "Wait, I thought you said you got this from a man by the sea."

"Passed down through generations… My mother… her mother… Semele… Harmonia… a family heirloom…"

Harmonia? "Wait, what do you mean, Harmonia?"

"My family… family… my son… my..." Her words grew so heavily distorted by her weeping that she seemed to descend into gibberish.

Aphrodite didn't care how overcome the woman was – she'd said something about Harmonia, and she had to know what it was… Her daughter was a goddess, yet Aphrodite hadn't seen her in decades… centuries...

"Answer me!" she screamed. "What were you saying about my daughter? Who are you?"

The woman was crying so profusely now she could barely breathe. "Jocasta."


	45. Eros and Ares V

"What happened? What did she do?"

"I told you," Eros groaned, "They're just talking... or at least, I think they are. I can't really see anything from here. We're too far away." Eros didn't understand how Ares could be so awake after rowing for so long. "Can I please get down now? It's getting dark."

"Not yet. Did Aphrodite open the box?"

"I think so. But it looks like Jocasta took it back. Really, Ares, I don't see what the point of..."

"So she saw it. Good." She had to recognize it, thought Ares. She just has to... Ares knew he couldn't be the one to tell Aphrodite... Not out right, anyway... She wouldn't believe him if he told her now, after all this time. It had come from to be someone who had no reason to lie to her - she wouldn't believe it if it came from anyone else.

Originally, when Ares found out what had happened to Harmonia, he couldn't think of a way to tell Aphrodite what he knew. He had wanted to tell her for so long, but every time he saw her, the words never came out. He couldn't bear to hurt her like that, especially since there was nothing she could do for their daughter anymore.

Give him a battle, he thought, and he say anything... He could even inspire thousands of men to keep marching, even when they knew they were about to die... But with Aphrodite, words failed him.

Ares loved the battlefield; this he could not deny... But her presence offered him a glimpse of a life he knew that he could never have as the god of war - a peaceful life, a life full of love, with a family of his own, and...

No, he couldn't think about that right now. This was about keeping Hephaestus from harming anyone else. This had nothing to do with Aphrodite, he repeated in his mind as if it were a mantra.

As he was rowing to the island, he had tried to convince himself that he would have gone after Hephaestus no matter who he was with, but deep down, he knew he was lying to himself. If he lost Aphrodite, the one solace he had in the entire world, his halcyon amid the chaos he had to deal with every single day... it would truly be a fatal blow.

"Ares, seriously, I can't even see anything anymore. It's too dark. I'm coming down."

"It doesn't matter. She saw it. That's good enough. Now we just have to wait." Ares pulled out some supplies from the boat and began setting up camp as Eros shimmied down the tree.

"Why are we waiting? Why can't we just go talk with her right now and tell her to come home with us?" Eros threw an exasperated look toward his father. This trip was making it even harder for him to believe that they were related.

"There's a lot you don't know, son." Ares pondered whether he should continue, or rather, whether Aphrodite would want him to continue. As he unfolded the last blanket, he thought of how dear Hephaestus was to Eros - even now, after they had travelled all this way, Eros still seemed to want to think the best of Hephaestus. "Hephaestus is a dangerous man."

Eros rolled his eyes and started fluffing his pillow. "You act like he would try to hurt her. Humiliate her, maybe, but... well... Come on, Ares, you have to admit-"

"Boy, be quiet. You're making a fool of yourself. You have no idea what you're talking about." Ares was not about to take this kind of treatment from his own son, even if Eros didn't know what he was really saying.

Eros was too tired to deal with Ares's enigmatic behavior anymore. He walked over to his father and looked him straight in the eye. "Then tell me."

Maybe he should, thought Ares. "OK, I will. You may want to sit down, though. I don't think you're going to like what you hear."


	46. The Necklace

Eros expected Ares to pace in front of him, blasting a litany of offenses that Hephaestus had committed in an effort to rally him into battle. But to his surprise, Ares sat down with Eros on a log near shore and looked out toward the open sea. It seemed like forever until Ares finally spoke.

"I don't know how to tell you this. I haven't told anyone about this, not even your mother."

Eros didn't know what to say. He had never seen this side of Ares before. His slumped shoulders, his wistful tone – it was as if his immortality had temporarily slipped away with the tide, and his age was showing.

"How long have you known that I'm your father?"

The question took Eros by surprise. "Um... A long time now…"

"Who told you?"

"Well, both Aphrodite and Hephaestus told me, but at different times. Why?"

"I was just curious," said Ares.

A haze of clouds drifted in front of the moon, sending the sea into shadow. Staring out into the abyss, Ares felt a shiver run down his spine. He thought of the heavy silence that came before a battle that was already lost. To a human being, it must feel just like this, he thought, the prospect of death. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Have they told you anything about your sister, Harmonia?"

"I know she's your daughter." said Eros.

"Yes," he said, his eyes still closed. "She was." Ares had wanted to ease into the subject, but the more he spoke, the more he saw how such a thing was impossible. No matter how carefully he spoke, this would be painful.

Eros, too distracted by his father's change in demeanor, had not noticed the change in tense. For a moment, he could see how this side of Ares would fit well with his mother, but he chose to shake the image from his mind.

"The box I gave Jocasta has a necklace in it that Hephaestus originally made for Harmonia as a wedding present," Ares said. "The necklace is supposed to grant the wearer eternal youth and beauty. I remember thinking that it was a strange thing to give a goddess, but she wanted to wear it anyway - as a gesture of goodwill to Hephaestus, she said.

"But Hephaestus didn't mean it that way. He hated that your mother and I were together, so he had a curse put on the necklace. He was so clever about it, too - he gave it to Cadmus, her husband first, and not directly to her. That way, even if she had been suspicious about it, it was also a gift from her new husband, so how could she not wear it?" Ares shook his head in disgust.

"What kind of curse?" asked Eros. He couldn't believe that anyone, let alone Hephaestus, would want to hurt Harmonia. She was probably the only person, god or goddess, that everyone got along with on Mount Olympus, and that was no small feat.

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like it. But for some stupid reason, her descendants have taken to passing it down, bride to bride, as a wedding present for generations. It's caused horrible things to happen to everyone who's worn it, but they kept passing it down. And then, of course, Hephaestus gave Harmonia a cloak, too. If I remember right, the brooch matched the necklace, but he had dipped the fabric in crime." said Ares.

"In crime? How- I don't- This doesn't make any sense," Eros stammered.

"And then he tricked Athena into saying the cloak was a present from both of them, so again, Harmonia had to wear it."

"Ares, I don't understand. Hephaestus loved Harmonia. Sure, I think he knew that she wasn't his daughter, but he loved her."

"Hephaestus is a very sick being."

Eros looked at his father, dumbfounded. Hephaestus had been so kind to him, and surely he had known that he was not his son. Why would he do this?

"Tell me what happened to her," Eros finally said, but Ares was so far away in thought, he didn't hear him.

"The curse is very powerful. It reaches far beyond the person who wears it, and it is... devastating. Never underestimate Hephaestus."

"But what happened to Harmonia?" asked Eros.

"She was turned into a serpent with Cadmus, and they died."

Ares thought that telling this to someone would give him some relief, but instead, he felt as if it had released some kind of demon within himself that for the past few centuries, he had been able to suppress. Everything he had felt when Hades first told him that Harmonia had crossed into the Underworld - the shock, the anger, the deep grief - it all bubbled back up to the surface again.

Hephaestus had killed his beautiful, gentle, perfect, _immortal _daughter.

"She-" Eros was unable to finish his question. His entire worldview had changed in the course of a single conversation, and his head was still reeling from the blow.

"She died," said Ares, hanging his head. "Hephaestus killed our daughter."

"And Aphrodite doesn't know?" asked Eros.

"She has no idea," he said. "She even thinks Hephaestus wants to try _starting over_."

Eros stared out at the horizon like his father had earlier and tried to process everything he'd just heard.

"Hephaestus is a very dangerous, deceitful, vindictive man." continued Ares, "He can kill a goddess, and today, he brought his cheating wife into his home territory - to a village full of his followers, and to the house of a woman who hates her... Now do you understand the situation we are in?"


	47. Hephaestus, Thetis, and Aglaea

"Some more ambrosia, dear?" Thetis asked Hephaestus, who was seated in the opposite lounge chair, an empty bowl in one hand, and a scroll in the other.

"No, thank you," he replied. Aphrodite had been gone for over an hour. A few months ago, before they had 'started over', he would have simply assumed that she was out with Ares again, and he'd have gone to his forge to distract himself.

But Ares had no reason to be here, he thought. A peaceful fishing village would certainly be of no interest to him, and besides, Aphrodite had made her choice.

And Hephaestus had no reason to doubt her, he assured himself. After all, Aphrodite had never been incredibly discreet; he could always tell when she had been with someone else.

He would simply have to choose to trust her.

As difficult as that might be.

"Well," announced Thetis with a stretch, "I'm off to bed. Tell your wife good night for me, if she comes back tonight."

Hephaestus shot her a look. "Excuse me?"

"Come now, Hephaestus, don't take it personally. Her behavior is her behavior; she can't help who she is, and her personality has nothing to do with you. You're a good man, dear. I'm proud to have you for my son. But she's… you know."

"She's what..." goaded Hephaestus, slamming his scroll down onto the end table.

"Do I really need to say it?"

"Yes, mother, you do," rising to his feet, incensed by her careless tone. "Just say what you've wanted to say all evening – you think she's a whore."

"I never said that," said Thetis, nonchalantly. "I simply don't think she's suited for you. Your temperaments are so different. You were always such a good boy, and-"

"Stop it, mother," interrupted Hephaestus. She had such a high opinion of him, he thought, unduly high, and it had only gotten worse since he'd been away. "I'm not the perfect person that you think I am."

"But it's as if she's trying to make you suffer. No one deserves to spend immortality like that," she said. "Especially not you, dear."

Though Thetis had no idea what she was saying, her words were like daggers to his heart, into wounds, he thought, that would never heal. "We're trying to work things out," he finally blurted out. "She promised me that she wouldn't cheat anymore."

"And you believe her?" Thetis asked with a laugh. "Love has clearly made you the fool."

"People can change, mother!" he exclaimed, as much for himself as for Aphrodite. "You haven't seen her these past few weeks. She's different now."

To Thetis, however, Hephaestus was only proving her point. "What I don't understand is why you didn't leave her when you had the chance. You caught her with another man in your bed! You literally caught her! You had perfect grounds to divorce her, and you didn't." She shook her head, believing, as she had always believed, that she knew what was best for her son. "You should have let me find you a wife, Hephaestus; you would've been much happier. Who knows, I might have even been a grandmother by now - or at least in bed asleep!"

"No one's stopping you from going to bed," he said, returning to his seat and picking up his scroll.

"Are you talking back to me?" asked Thetis with alarm. "What has gotten into you?"

Hephaestus said nothing, too enraged to speak, and pretended to read his scroll. Seeing that her son was ignoring her, she whirled out of the room, her abundant robe fluttering behind her.

Aphrodite had changed, he reassured himself. He felt so much closer to her now than he had in a long time. She'd been so vulnerable with him, he thought, as he reminded himself of their visit to her birthplace… of the way she felt in his arms as he tried to comfort her…

"Excuse me…" said a tiny voice from the other side of the room.

Startled from his reverie, Hephaestus almost fell out of his chair. "Is there someone there?" he called out.

"It's just me," replied the voice. " Aglaea. I wanted to know if I was needed anymore this evening. Will you be retiring for the night as well?"

Ah, Aphrodite's nymph, he realized, recognizing her silhouette. "Oh, I'm sorry," he replied, "I'm not keeping you up, am I?"

"No," squeaked the nymph, "not at all. It's a pleasure to serve you… I mean… I enjoy…" She backed up further into the shadows to hide her blushing face.

"It's OK," said Hephaestus with a smile. This nymph was cute, he thought. "You have no reason to be nervous around me."

"But-but-but… you're a god," she said.

"And you're a nymph," he replied, trying to make her at ease. "I'm really not that much different than you."

Aglaea balked at the thought. She was nothing like Hephaestus – he could make such beautiful things, and her sisters had told her that he could swim faster than any of the nymphs. And he was so kind…

"Come into the light, if you please, Aglaea," said Hephaestus. "I can't see you very well."

Aglaea did as he asked as if it were a reflex, but she was so insecure about her looks that she lowered her head and folded her hands in front of her. "I'm sorry about my robe," she said, "I was helping some of the fishermen and-"

"You look beautiful," he interjected, hoping to ease her mind. She had a simple, rustic elegance to her that reminded him of the nymphs he had known as a child. It was a type of beauty he had not seen in a long time. "And I'm sure Aphrodite would agree."

His remarks made Aglaea blush all the more. "I-I-I can see I'm disturbing you. I should go."

Sensing that nothing he could do would ease her nerves, he nodded. "As you wish. I'll send for you if Aphrodite needs anything once she returns."

"Yes, thank you," said Aglaea, bowing to Hephaestus as she left the room.

What an odd little creature, he thought, but slowly, his ruminations on her quaint demeanor were replaced by thoughts of Aphrodite, on where she could possibly be, and on whether she was keeping her promise.


	48. Aphrodite and Jocasta

Aphrodite ripped the box from Jocasta, who had been cradling it tightly against her chest. "Enough with this stupid box!", Aphrodite said. "Tell me what you know about Harmonia!"

"NO!" cried Jocasta. "My son! Give him back to me! You can't take my son from me! I won't let you!"

Wait, thought Aphrodite, her _son_? She had heard of strange transformations before - of people being turned into animals, into trees, even into stone. The possibility that this necklace, too, had once been human was something she couldn't ignore. Holding the box more gingerly now, in a confused sort of disgust, Aphrodite tried to get a better look at it. "Are you saying that your son is in this box?"

To Aphrodite's surprise, Jocasta seemed even more confused than herself at the question. She looked just like Dionysus when he'd run out of wine and woken up in some strange place after a decade long stupor. "No...", she replied, dropping to her knees in a daze. "He's gone..."

"What do you mean, gone?"

Jocasta looked as if she were straining to remember. "They took him," she replied.

Aphrodite breathed a sigh of relief. She hated coming across things that used to be people. They always creeped her out, as if she could feel the people inside staring back at her. "Who took him?"

"My husband... a curse..."

Curses she could handle, she thought. She had even delivered a few of her own in her time. If there's a curse, she reasoned, then there must be a crime. So, either the curse was deserved, and her son had done something horribly offensive, or her son was innocent and could possibly be avenged. This gave Aphrodite an idea. "Oh Jocasta," she said, in as loving a tone as she could muster, as she placed the box on a rock by the path. "Come here. Sit on this log with me."

Jocasta rose from the ground and followed Aphrodite to the log.

"I haven't known you for very long," continued Aphrodite, wrapping her arm around Jocasta, "but I already feel so close to you, Jocasta. Maybe it's because we're both mothers, you and I. I can see that your son means everything to you, and that you would do anything you can to protect him. I would do the same for my children. Perhaps we can help each other, Jocasta. You could tell me about Harmonia, and..."

Jocasta suddenly stood up. "Dead!" she screamed, staring at the box. "They left him for dead! My son! My first-born son!" As she screamed, she lunged forward, reaching out toward the box, but her legs gave out beneath her, and she collapsed onto the ground.

Aphrodite snatched up the box before Jocasta could get to it. "You can have this back when you tell me what you know about my daughter!"

"I know...", said Jocasta, seemingly lost in thought again. "The question is so simple...", she muttered to herself.

"You talked about her like she was an ancestor of yours," prodded Aphrodite, now under the impression that there might be something wrong with Jocasta's memory. "Is that true?"

Jocasta began mindlessly pacing the path. "I don't know... I don't know...", she mumbled. "So hard to answer..."

"What more do you want?!" shouted Aphrodite. "I'll give you anything!"

"Stop making demands!" snapped Jocasta, gesturing one hand behind her toward Aphrodite. "You know she doesn't listen to them!"

This is new, thought Aphrodite. Maybe the curse wasn't on her son... She sat back on the log, holding the box in her lap, bewildered.

Jocasta didn't seem to notice. She began muttering something to herself, which at first Aphrodite could not understand. After some time, Aphrodite began to make out wisps of words. "Four legs... two legs... three legs... Four legs... two legs... three legs..."

"Jocasta..." Aphrodite tentatively called out, unsure whether she was even talking with Jocasta anymore.

Jocasta stopped in her tracks and looked up toward the stars. "Hideous..."

"Jocasta," she called out again, "what do you see?"

"I don't know what it is... But it won't let anyone into the city. It's trying to starve us, and my husband is gone."

"Is this the curse you were telling me about?" asked Aphrodite, in the hopes of leading Jocasta back to the present.

"My husband has gone to the oracle; the oracle will know." At this, Jocasta fell to her knees, facing away from Aphrodite, toward the sea. "Oh Aphrodite," she cried out, as if in prayer, "I have been your faithful servant. You have kept my husband's love for me, even though I have not given him any more children."

This sounds familiar, thought Aphrodite. Where had she heard this before?

"Guide my love home to me," Jocasta continued, "that I may hold him in my arms again."

Had she helped this woman before? Aphrodite couldn't remember. She watched as Jocasta continued, incoherently, doubled over herself in desperation. After some time, it occurred to Aphrodite that, at least within this fantasy, she could, in fact, 'help' Jocasta. She walked over to Jocasta and touched her shoulder, fully prepared to 'promise' to save her husband. But just as she touched her, Jocasta recoiled.

"Leave me alone!," she shouted, rising to her feet. "I know what you're going to say! My husband is dead, isn't he? I knew the curse wasn't real!" Jocasta turned to face Aphrodite, her eyes full of rage. "Why would he abandon me here, with this monster at our gate? How could he do something like that?!"

Aphrodite stepped back toward the log. "I don't know, Jocasta," she replied as she at back down. "I don't know what he would do something like that."

Jocasta fell back to the ground, grieving as she had her lost son. Aphrodite wondered why she hadn't helped Jocasta. She seemed so faithful, her posture at prayer resembling that of her most devoted followers. Why had she not helped this woman with her husband? Was this why this woman had been sent to her? Maybe this wasn't about the necklace at all. Maybe she was supposed to make things right and help this woman.

Aphrodite knelt down in front of Jocasta. "I'm sorry," she said. "It was wrong of me to ask you about my daughter, with everything that you've been through." Placing the box in front of Jocasta, who was now shaking with grief, Aphrodite continued, "If anyone deserves eternal beauty and youth, it's you. It's the least I can do."

Once she saw the box in front of her, Jocasta slowly reached her hand out to touch it. But before her fingers reached the box, she suddenly stopped crying, and looked up toward Aphrodite.

"Hello," she said.

"Um... hello...", replied Aphrodite. "Would you like me to help you up?"

"My name is Jocasta," Jocasta replied. "What is your name?"

This must be another hallucination, thought Aphrodite. "Jocasta," she said calmly, "what do you see?"

A giddy smile swept across Jocasta's face. "I see the most beautiful man I have ever seen in my entire life."

Maybe she did help Jocasta after all, thought Aphrodite. "Is this your husband?"

"No," she said, still smiling.

Aphrodite didn't remember sending anyone a man in this way. "Are you sure?"

"He defeated the monster," she said, breathing heavily. "And he's... amazing... Such a kind face... And his body..."

That definitely wasn't me, she thought, believing she would remember sending someone to defeat a monster. "Who is he?"

"I don't know." Jocasta said, shoving Aphrodite aside. "You interrupted him."

Aphrodite watched as Jocasta stepped over the box and walked a little ways down the path to flirt with a man who wasn't there. She would have found this amusing, if it weren't so eerily disturbing. Here was the only person in the last few centuries to mention Harmonia with any level of recognition, and she was talking up a shadow.

At a loss for what to do, and realizing that she wasn't going to get any answers about the box, whoever sent it, Harmonia, Aphrodite picked up the box off the ground. "Jocasta," she snarked, handing over the box, "consider this my wedding present."

Jocasta turned from her shadow-man. "Thank you!" she exclaimed. "That's so kind of you!"

But the moment she touched the box, her smile fell. Again, she fell to her knees, a look of horror streaked across her face. "Wait," said Jocasta. "No... That can't be true... No... But, our children... Oh Zeus, our children! NO!"

"What do you see, Jocasta?" asked Aphrodite, thinking Jocasta was finally returning to something relevant to her own interests.

"You, Aphrodite!" she yelled. "YOU!"

Aphrodite backed away in shock.

"How could you let this happen?! How could you let such a horrible thing happen?! My son, Aphrodite! MY SON!"

"Please, Jocasta, I don't know what you're talking about."

"You want to know about your precious daughter, Aphrodite? Mother to mother? Your husband gave her this necklace, this cursed necklace!", she cried, waving the box in the air. "Our family was cursed, all because of you! This abomination is all your fault!"

"My husband?" Did she just say Hephaestus made this necklace?

"Yes, your husband! He made it for Harmonia as a wedding present."

Aphrodite couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You're lying. He would never do something like that."

"Oh really? Then why is your daughter in Elysian Fields?"

* * *

**_For everyone who keeps reading this story, even though I haven't updated it in a long time. These next chapters are for you. Thank you for your love and support :)_**


	49. Hephaestus II

It had been dark for quite some time, and Aphrodite still had not come home.

Hephaestus was still in the parlor, reading his scroll - his mother's voice echoing his head. "Love has clearly made you the fool...", it kept saying. "fool..."

As if trying to prove the voice wrong, Hephaestus had decided to wait for his wife to come home.

But the longer he waited, the more doubtful he became.

Was his mother right? Had he become the fool?

Surely there was a reasonable explanation for his wife's absence. If he could think of something, anything, maybe the voice would go away...

As he tried to think of a logical excuse, a familiar sensation began to creep through him. It was a sensation that had always driven him to the forge - an anxious feeling that only left him through hard labor. He could feel that bitter rot seeping into his bones, again, picking away at his self-respect and numbing him to whatever was bound to happen next.

If she came in the door right now, he thought, bathed in that familiar scent of sweat and flowers... he honestly didn't know what he would do.

Before, he would have simply ignored it all. But now, after they had promised so much to one another, his forgiveness was wearing thin.

There is only so much I can take, he thought. And here of all places...

That's it.

Enough.

Leaving the empty bowl and the scroll by the chair, so she would know that he waited up for her, he made his way to his room.

As he walked, his thoughts burned like iron in the forge. It was one thing to betray him on Mount Olympus, with gods and epic heroes, he reasoned - it was entirely different to betray him _here_. The town had barely changed since he had lived here - different faces, but the same people. The same poor fishermen mending their nets, the same shy nymphs bouncing in the waves, and the same, pungent aroma of the sea. It was a dirty, smelly town that would never give birth to a Phaeon or an Adonis. They were good people, and Hephaestus loved them all, but in a land full of such villages, they were nothing extraordinary.

But flaunt herself here, around his family. In _his _town. That worshiped _him__. _This stung more deeply than anything else she had ever done.

Then, it suddenly occurred to him. What if this was her plan all along? What if this is her revenge for dragging her into the square with Ares? Would this not be perfect? To cheat on him in his own hometown, where even his own mother would know the gruesome details? Where his safe shell could be ripped open for all to see?

In that moment, he hated her.

He ripped the door open, almost tearing it off its hinges, and fully intended to slam it behind him.

But there she was.

Dressed in a robe that clung to her skin, she turned to face him.

"I've been waiting for you," she said.

"Aphrodite," he whispered, his voice muffled by his hubris. "I-I..."

She stepped toward him and placed her index finger over his lips. "It's alright. I know you. You can always take all the time you need."

Hephaestus felt so ashamed. All that time, he had been waiting, steaming, letting his mind run away with him. But she had been in here, he thought, the entire time.

"You-you... you didn't have to wait up for me," he stammered.

"I know," she replied, stepping back toward the bed.

"You're probably exhausted," he said, confused by the gleam in her eye. "I stayed up so late. I'm sorry."

"I'm not tired at all," she cooed. "Come here."

Hephaestus stood before her in shock. Was she flirting with him? Had she _ever _flirted with him? It had been so long, he couldn't remember what it was like to be on the receiving end of such behavior.

Seeing that he wasn't moving, she giggled. "Or I can come to you," she said, stepping toward him.

She then put her arms around his waist. Hephaestus hesitantly returned the gesture.

"What would you like to do?" she asked him.

"I don't know," he answered, afraid of answering incorrectly and ruining the moment. "What would you like to do?"

"I don't know," she replied, mimicking his intonation, as she ran her hands over his back.

Hephaestus was afraid to move. At this point, he was pretty sure of what she was thinking, but she could just be joking with him, for all he knew.

As if to clarify her intentions, she put his arms around her, placing his hands on the small of her back. He traced the smooth cloth of her gown, under his worn fingers, soaking the warmth that exuded from her, long untouchable, body.

Then everything fell into a blur.

He kissed her with all the fire he had pent up inside him, waiting for someone that waiting for him. And she returned his passion, as if she had, in fact, desired this all along.

Lost in a euphoria, he failed to notice his own handiwork against her skin. Ribbons of woven gold, hammered fine for hours from the famous fleece, now tangled in his hands like cotton as he scrambled to untie them.

It wasn't until he saw a mark on her thigh - the raised line of a jellyfish scar - that he recognized them...

The girdle his wife had given away.

The nymph in his arms.

The woman standing in the doorway.


	50. Confirmations

"No...", Hephaestus muttered once he'd realized what he had done, barely able to speak at the thought. He pushed Aglaea aside and fell to his knees at the door in tears.

Aphrodite found herself adopting the posture she would take at her temples. One foot in front of the other, perfectly still, peering down in cold detachment at the disheveled, confused people groveling before her.

"I thought she was you, Aphrodite!," cried Hephaestus. "Please believe me!"

Aglaea, sure that Aphrodite was about to kill her, was so terrified that she couldn't move.

Aphrodite said nothing. In her temples, her devotees always confessed more quickly when she remained silent. Their imaginations would run away with them,

"She's wearing that girdle!", he said. "Look!"

"What girdle?" asked Aphrodite, her voice monotone.

Hephaestus closed his eyes in shame. "She was wearing it before. Please, Aphrodite, I didn't know. I would never do that to you."

"No," replied Aphrodite. "You would do much worse."

Hephaestus, assuming that she was referring to the incident with the net, rose to his feet and went to stand by the cowering Aglaea. "You're right," he said. "You have every right to humiliate me for this. It's only fair. You want me to call my mother in here?"

"No."

"Then what do you want?", Hephaestus pleaded.

"What I want, you can't give me."

Hephaestus had never heard Aphrodite talk like this before, and it was scaring him. "What is it? Please, I'll give you anything!"

Aphrodite stood silently for a moment, observing the face of her husband. He was breathing heavily now, his face red and lined with his own tears, his eyes wide with hope that she would speak.

"My daughter," she finally said.

Aphrodite watched as all of Hephaestus' energy seemed to drain from his body. Jocasta was right. He did do it.

"I'm... sorry..." stammered Aglaea, still stricken with fear. "Hera said... the girdle... that I could..."

"He's all yours," said Aphrodite, still watching Hephaestus. "You are free to take him. Consider him my gift to you."

"Aphrodite!" cried Hephaestus, reaching toward his wife in disbelief.

"This is not my husband," she stated, then left the house.


End file.
